バラの冠 — Rosarium
by f u h a i i
Summary: "Monsters can't love, can they?" — Rin/OC
1. Mephistopheles

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

She wasn't scared, not even a little bit.

She was a demon, and a powerful one at that, hence she had confidence she could overcome this. However—

_"W... What the hell is that?"_ Was what she thought when she saw the beast made of miasma kilometers away, growing bigger with each passing second. _"Is that the impure king...?"_

It was enormous; hundreds times bigger than her. How on earth was she supposed to defeat such a thing?

"Shimizu-san!" The voice of a certain blonde girl suddenly rang in her ears, making her snap out of her trance. "Watch out!"

It was barely three seconds in between she started to feel a painful, burning sensation in her legs. It felt as though acid were being spilled all over her pale skin, and when she looked down to see whatever was causing said sensation, she realised it was nothing else but the demon itself. The lower part of her body was covered in miasma. Or, in other words, was being eaten up.

"K**–**Kamiki-san!" The blonde girl cried, and the alluded one clenched her teeth nervously.

"I know!" The dark purple-haired girl quickly took out a piece of paper, which she always used to summon her familiars.

"You idiots!" The demon girl suddenly shouted at her companions, an angry, almost demonic expression across her face. "I don't need your help! I can do this alone!"

Her voice sounded annoyed and full of confidence, but innerly, she was crying her eyes out of pain and fear. The boiling miasma covering her legs was slowly going up to her waist, and she knew it was only a matter of time until her body was completely swallowed up. She was slowly going to lose her limbs, her organs, and finally, her life. It scared her, the thought of dying in such a slow, painful way.

_"It's no use. There's nothing I can do anymore,"_ she thought, as she closed her eyes to get a clearer vision of the memories that were flooding her mind. _"... I guess this is what I deserve."_

Indeed, death was what she deserved for everything she has done.

Demons deserve death; that's what she's always been told.

* * *

**_"There's so much I want to talk about... how all of this began, and how much I've changed."_**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

_"Hail Mary, full of greece._

_Our lord is with thee._

_Blessed art amongst women,_

_and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,_

_Jesus._

_Holy Mary, mother of Go—_

... Ugh."

No matter how much she tried to, she was never able to finish her prayers. She was weak to, and she'd always end up feeling an intense pain inside her chest and coughing to the point of bleeding.

Of course, this time was no exception.

Some of the many demons that lived with her, mostly small hobgoblins, tiny leapers and short snowmen, seemed to have heard her coughs, and instantly rushed towards her as quickly as they could. As soon as her horrible cough ceased, she lifted up her gaze, and saw the many creatures that were looking at her with worried eyes. "... Don't worry guys," she said, as she smiled weakly. "I'm... fine."

Honestly, if she had to choose between being around demons or being around humans, she'd choose to be around demons without thinking it twice.

She didn't like to be surrounded by people; their voices were annoying to her, and so were their stares. It's been plenty time since the last time she actually had interaction with a person, yet she still remembered how doing so had felt. She found it annoying, being looked at and talked to. She simply couldn't stand to interact with others, perhaps because whenever she tried to, people would look either scared or grossed out. Her family was no exception; they always looked disgusted with her, and the way they looked at her made her feel loathed.

Unlike others, she preferred to be surrounded by demons, perhaps because she felt as though they were the only ones who could understand her.

She wasn't what you'd call a human, after all.

She was pretty aware of the fact her heritage was the reason why people were always so wary of her, but even so, that didn't mean she'd forgive them. She certainly didn't want to be a target for human hatred once again, and thus she isolated herself from everyone and everything, and was planning to never, ever interact with anyone again.

However—

"Huh?" Suddenly, she started to hear knocks on the door of the entrance, and very unlike herself, she started to wonder whether or not she should go and open it.

The knocks continued, and at some point, she couldn't ignore them anymore. She made her way to the main door of her home, and opened it to see a weird, fancy-dressed man. She carefully studied him; his hair was dark purple, and his eyes were colored a bright, forest green. He was tall; so tall she had to look up to meet his face, in which he had a mischievous, yet somehow amused grin. She couldn't help but note the man's teeth were pretty sharp, and when she looked at him even more carefully, she realised he also had pointed ears. At that point, there was no doubt he was a demon, or at least partly.

"My, the weather's been pretty cold lately, don't you think~?" He casually commented, as he took off the huge, white hat he was wearing and shook the snow that had accumulated on its brim.

"... Do you need anything?" She asked, sounding quite calm despite the fact there was a probably dangerous demon standing in front of her.

"Dear me, what kind of greeting is that?" The weird-looking demon started with indignation on his voice. "I'm truly dissapointed; I thought you'd be a polite, graceful lady by now!"

She couldn't help but blink in confusion at the man's words. "... What?"

**.**

**.**

**.**

In the end, the demon, who introduced himself with the peculiar name of Mephisto Pheles, pretty much invited himself inside the girl's home, and ended up sitting along with her in the dining room. He was behaving just as though it weren't the first time he had visited her, and if that wasn't enough, he dared to ask her for a tea. Her response at such demand was a fierce glare, but even so, her so scary eyes didn't seem to work on the mysterious, dark purple-haired man, who seemed rather amused than scared.

"I'm surprised," Mephisto started, suddenly breaking the silence between himself and the white-haired girl, "You certainly haven't changed a single bit... That glare of yours surely remained the same~"

Aura's grayish-blue eyes inspected him quite warily. "We've... met before?" she asked, a mixture of curiosity and confusion present on her voice.

"But of course!" Mephisto replied her question almost instantly, "I haven't come to visit you for a while though; a few years actually... And if I remember correctly, your family was still with you back then."

Surprisingly, or at least to the dark purple-haired demon, she didn't react at all at the sudden mention of her family. Her facial expression wasn't showing any sign of sadness or remorse; in truth, it was completely blank, almost emotionless. "What are you talking about?" Aura asked, and Mephisto looked at her with interested, forest green eyes. "My family is here with me."

She wasn't lying; her words were completely honest, although hard to understand.

Her concept of family was open and vague, after all.

To her, a family was nothing but a group of people she was supposed to love and care about, and since she didn't really care about anyone in particular, it could be said she didn't have a family. Speaking in biological terms, she once had a family, but most of them were normal humans. She, unlike most of her ordinary relatives, had demon blood running through her veins, which was the cause of much, if not all the rejection she received through her childhood.

Getting constantly rejected by humans, she decided to forget about them and interact with demons instead, who surprisingly turned out to be better companions to her than humans ever were. For some strange reason, the supposedly evil creatures instantly took a liking to her, and she assumed it was because of her demonic heritage that they thought of her as one of them. Their company always made her feel something strange, which she assumed it was what others call happiness.

Others might think of them as beasts or pets, but to her, they were pretty much what a family was supposed to be.

"... I see," was all the purple-haired demon said, as he wore that trademark smirk of his across his face.

"So, what did you come here for?" Aura asked all of sudden, directly to the point it almost sounded rude. "I'm sure you didn't come just to visit."

Mephisto's smirk widened in amusement at the girl's words. "A little blunt, are we?" he spoke in amusement, and then continued, "You're correct; I had my reasons to come here."

After saying those words, he pulled out an envelope from inside his white jacket and handed it to the girl, who stared at him with a confused expression across her face. She opened it slowly, just as though she were expecting some sort of trap inside it, and found there was a piece of paper inside it. Without delay, she quickly pulled said paper out, and her eyes widened in shock when she read its content.

"... Scholarship award?"

**.**

**.**

**.**

Truth to be told, she never thought she'd go to school, let alone to a prestigious academy kilometers away from her home.

Right at that moment, she was walking on the snowy streets of the town, following the devilish man she had met earlier while thinking about the conversation she had with him.

Honestly, the idea of enrolling an academy didn't appeal her at all, but the moment Mephisto mentioned it also had a cram school for exorcists, her interest grew a bit. She still disliked the idea of being in a place full of people nonetheless, and just when she was about to decline the scholarship, the dark purple-haired demon managed to convince her with some tempting words: _"Just because you've got a good relationship with a few demons doesn't mean all of them are good-natured. Believe me, I know that myself~! Besides..." He made a small pause, and then added, "Aren't you interested in meeting the likes of you? People with both human and demon blood flowing through their veins, I mean~!"_

Truthfully, she was interested; she's never had the chance to meet other half-demons, after all.

"Here we are~" Mephisto suddenly sang, interrupting the demon girl's trail of thought.

Aura looked around the place, and then a frown took place on her face. "Um, Mephisto-san... There's no—"

Even before the white-haired girl could finish pointing out the fact there was no vehicle that would escort her to the academy, a large, pink limousine parked right in front of her. She was completely frozen in shock, not only because of the unusual color of the vehicle, but also because of how suddenly it had appeared. It felt almost magical, or at least to her it did. Mephisto smirked amusedly at the way the white-haired girl was staring at the pink vehicle, and the next thing he did was opening the door for her. "Shall we go~?"

Aura was about to step inside the limousine, but she suddenly started to hesitate. She had a bad feeling about all this, perhaps because everything was too unreal to be true. One day, a random demon showed up at her home, told her he had known her for a long time and then gifted her a scholarship – it certainly sounded like some sort of fairy tail. She knew kind, generous people existed, but she was pretty sure this wasn't the case – especially considering the fact Mephisto was nothing but a demon, and surely had his own reasons to gift her something important like a scholarship.

"Is there something wrong?" she suddenly heard Mephisto's teasing voice. "Could it be... you're regretting your decision?"

"... Not at all," was her response, as she entered inside the limousine.

* * *

**A/N:** **... /hides under desk and cries in fetal position.**

**Just how many times did I re-write this story? 5? 10? 20? /punched. I know everyone is going to hate me for re-writting this _again_, but I had to... especially since I re-read the other one, and realised there was a _huge_ mistake (or rather, plot-hole) on it. Plus it was painful to read. GODDAMNIT WHY DO I SUCK SO MUCH. FEEL FREE TO THROW ROCKS AT ME. I DESERVE IT FOR BEING SUCH A FAIL OF AN AUTHOR /dies. Well um... I'll make a huge promise: if I fail writing this story this time, I won't try to write it _ever_ again... /nobody believes her. UGH. I'M TOTALLY SERIOUS GUYS /shot.**

**On a side note, I finally enrolled an english institute! YAY /shot. I hope my english improves at least a bit...**

**Well um... I... hope you liked it even though it sucks bad? /cries. Feedback will be highly appreciated! /dodges brick.**


	2. Nº 1106

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

___"Is that... the academy?"_ Aura thought, her grayish blue eyes wide in shock at what she was seeing through the limousine's window.

"Marvelous, isn't it?" Mephisto spoke when he noticed the amazed expression the girl was wearing across her face.

Aura responded by giving a nod, while she kept staring in amazement at the academy she was soon going to attend and the countless facilities that were surrounding it. There were many weird, eccentric buildings, and the roads connecting to the huge establishment were completely flooded with a great number of vehicles. It astonished her; the whole place was so enormous and lively to the point it could pass as a city in its own right. _"... It's... really amazing."_ She knew the famous True Cross Academy was a prestigious school for rich people, but honestly, she wasn't expecting it to be so incredible.

Truth to be told, she felt quite lucky to have received a scholarship for such a wonderful place.

When the limousine finally parked at the side of the street, Aura stood up from her seat with the intention of rushing outside, but even before she could throw herself out of the vehicle, Mephisto took her wrist and stopped her. "Not so fast; there are a few things I want to talk about with you," The dark purple-haired demon spoke with that usual smirk of his plastered on his face. "Moreover, you're forgetting your uniform. You wouldn't want people to see you looking like that, would you~?"

Aura frowned, especially at the last part of what he said. "... I'm not going to change my clothes in front of you, Mephisto-san."

"Hm, I supposed so~" Mephisto said, as he grinned amusedly. He then sang, "Eins, zwei, drei~!", snapped his fingers, and the whole vehicle got filled with a pinkish smoke. A few seconds later, the smoke faded away, and the first thing the white-haired girl noticed was that the white kimono she was wearing earlier had been magically replaced by a pink skirt, a white shirt, a striped bow necktie, and a beige sweater. Just like she expected, the uniform was pretty cute, and somewhat fancy-looking.

"T... thank you," was all she managed to say after the shock over her magical change of clothes. "So... What did you want to talk about, Mephisto-san?"

**.**

**.**

**.**

_"Wow... the classrooms sure are huge..."_ Aura thought, as she observed one of the many classrooms of the academy, which were big enough for at least one hundred students each one.

Aura was aware of the fact she wasn't supposed to waste so much time in wandering around the academy, but she just couldn't help it; everything looked so elegant and expensive that she practically couldn't ignore it, plus the fact she's never been in such a fancy place before didn't help to diminish her curiosity at all. She was about to keep going with her self-guided tour around the academy, but stopped when she heard a voice behind her. "Aura-chan~" she heard the voice again, but when she turned around to see who was calling her, she saw nobody near her. "Down here~"

As soon as she looked down, she jumped at seeing a small, fluffy puppy staring at her quite deeply.

"My, what are you doing, waving your tail like that?" it spoke, much to her surprise. "I specifically told you to hide it under your uniform, didn't I?"

"Me..." she started, almost sure who was behind that adorable disguise. "Mephisto-san...? What are you—"

"I knew you were going to ignore my instructions, so I came here to personally escort you to your classroom~!" it sang, and the white-haired girl just stared at it.

_"... Yeah. That's Mephisto-san,"_ she thought, as she followed the little animal to one of the many doors of the room.

"Remember the key I gave you earlier?" Mephisto asked, and the girl responded by nodding. "Very well; now use it to open this door."

"O... okay." Just like the demon told her to, Aura put the key inside the door lock and turned it, and the door opened to reveal a long, almost endless hall with doors on both sides. "W... wow..." Her usually dull, grayish blue eyes shone in astonishment at what she was seeing through the door, mainly because of how unreal it looked. To her, it almost felt like she had opened a portal to a new, hidden world.

"Let's go; the first-year classes are held in classroom one thousand one hundred and six," Mephisto's voice suddenly rang in her ears, slapping her back to reality. "You don't want to be late in your first day, do you~?"

**.**

**.**

**.**

"What is the proper procedure to heal a mashou?" Right after those words escaped his mouth, two of his students raised up their hands in order to reply the question. It didn't surprise him; it was quite a basic question, after all. However, despite how easy the question was, he was pretty sure a certain one of his eight students wouldn't know how to answer it. "... Okumura-kun?"

"H–huh?!" was the alluded one's response after he had been woken up from a blissful dream in which he already was a powerful, skilled exorcist. "W**–**what's going on?"

"... Pull yourself together," the teacher said, sounding quite annoyed. "Alright, does anyone else—"

The young teacher couldn't get to finish what he was saying, because he got cut off by the sound of the classroom's door getting slammed. Naturally, everyone in the classroom turned to look at whoever had interrupted the class, and much to their surprise, it was none else than their new classmate. She was extremely pale, and her white hair was unnaturally long.

"... Don't you think that was quite an inappropiate way to enter, Aura-chan?" Mephisto whispered at the white-haired girl, whose response was an annoyed, yet embarrassed, "S**–**shut up."

"Ah, you must be the new student, Shimizu Aura-san," the teacher said, as he tilted his glasses to get a better look of the girl. She, on her part, didn't reply anything to his words, perhaps because she was too busy studying him. He was tall, brunette, had a few moles on his face and was wearing glasses in front of his turquoise eyes. Also, he looked pretty young, and she was almost sure he was about the same age as her. "Please, come in and introduce yourself to the rest of the class," he spoke once again, making her snap out of her trance.

"Are you... the teacher?" Aura asked, not even bothering to hide how shocked she was.

He smiled gently, and gave her an affirmative nod as a response. "I'm Okumura Yukio; I'll be your teacher in anti-demon pharmacology. I hope we get along well, Shimizu-san."

"... Me too, Okumura-sensei," was all she said, her surprised eyes still fixed on him. She then remembered she was supposed to introduce herself before the class, hence she turned around to face the students and took the opportunity to study them. Surprisingly, or at least to her, there weren't many exorcists wannabes; in truth, there were only eight of them – something she was happy for, being that she didn't particularly like people, let alone crowded places. Her eyes kept going from student to student, until a certain one of them caught her attention; a dark-haired boy with sapphire blue eyes. Truthfully, the color of his eyes was quite eye-catching, although it wasn't his eyes what caught her attention. Actually, what caught her eye was the fact he had pointed ears, which looked exactly like hers.

"Shimizu-san?" Aura snapped out of her trance when she heard her teacher's voice, and realised the boy with electric blue eyes had caught her staring at him, and was now staring at her back with a confused frown across his face. "Is everything alright?"

Her response at the young teacher's question was an awkward nod, and she then cleared her throat in order to introduce herself. "I'm Shimizu Aura," she announced, her voice sounding pretty dull, as though she weren't happy to be there. Ironically enough, she was in fact trying to give the opposite impression, but she wasn't precisely good when it came to express emotions. "Nice to meet you... I guess."

After speaking such empty, lifeless words, she walked ahead, and sat in an empty desk positioned right in the middle of the classroom.

_**.  
**_

_**.**_

_**.**_

It was her very first day at the cram school, and even though the first lesson had yet to finish, she was already exhausted. Honestly, what was tiring her wasn't the class itself, but the many looks her classmates were throwing at her. Their gazes weren't hateful but rather curious, but since she had problems distinguishing emotions, she couldn't help but feel threatened. Moreover, she didn't particularly like to be looked at, and the fact she was getting constantly eyed up exhausted her to no end.

_"They all... want to be exorcists, don't they?"_ Aura thought, as she scanned the whole class with her grayish blue eyes.

She was the offspring of a human and a demon, meaning she was nothing but a half-breed. However, if she had to choose between being a demon or being a human, she'd choose the former. She didn't consider herself as a well-nature human, and honestly, she didn't really want to be an exorcist; actually, the only reason why she enrolled the academy was to meet the likes of her – offsprings of humans and demons. It could be said she was a demon trying to mix up with humans, and that might be the reason why she felt so out of place in the class.

_"Exorcists..."_

One day, the exorcist trainees that were now her classmates will become professional exorcists; exorcists whose duty is to annihilate demons like her. She practically had no option but become good if she wanted to remain safe and sound.

"What are you so thoughtful about, Aura-chan?" Mephisto, who was still in his puppy form, suddenly asked, interrupting her trail of thought. "Could it be you're planning something~?"

"... Not really," the white-haired girl replied, as she frowned at the fluffy puppy that was sitting on her lap. An instant later, the frown on her face dissapeared, and she then lifted up her grayish blue gaze to look at someone in particular. Out of curiosity, the puppy looked at the same direction as her, and realised who was the one she was staring at.

"Oh my... I see you've taken an interest in Okumura Rin-kun~" Mephisto spoke, quite amused at how obvious the white-haired girl could be.

"... You could say I'm interested in him," Aura admitted openly, her eyes still glued on the dark-haired boy. "He's the same as me, isn't he?"

"Indeed; he is a half-breed just like you," was Mephisto's reply at the girl's question. "His father is not just any demon, though. I bet you wouldn't believe me if I told you who it is~!"

"Huh, really? He's the son of an important demon?" Aura asked, her face lighting up with curiosity. "Who is his father then?"

A deep silence followed her words, until Mephisto finally decided to make the major revelation—

"Not telling~" was all he said.

* * *

**A/N:** **... /cries for intense happiness.**

**GUYS. YOUR REVIEWS. YOUR ALERTS. YOUR FAVORITES. THEY MADE ME SO HAPPY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOUUUU! /hugs you all with burning passion.**

**Seriously guys, I have no idea how to thank you... You're the best reviewers one could ask for /cries. I seriously don't know how you manage to pull off with an annoying, stupid author like me orz... I'm not even worth it /cries more. But still, your kindness makes me really happy, and I swear I'll do my best this time! Thank you for everything, and I hope you liked this chapter!**

**By the way, feedback is always appreciated~ /shot.**


	3. COLLISION

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

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Minutes were passing as though they were centuries, and to her, the anti-demon pharmacology class was starting to feel endless.

"Which herbs are best to heal a mashou?" Yukio asked his class, and much to his surprise, his new student raised up her hand. "Yes, Shimizu-san?"

"Aloe," Aura replied simply **–** something that earned her a few confused looks. "Turmeric is also good, but it works better to stop suppuration."

"Correct," Yukio said, quite impressed by the white-haired girl's knowledge despite the fact it was her very first class. "Very impressive, Shimizu-san."

_"... It's not impressive at all,"_ Aura thought, as she put her elbow on the desk and chin on her hand.

She was tired, hungry and nervous, and if that wasn't enough, her tail was starting to ache from keeping it hidden under her clothes.

_"... I hate this,"_ was all she could think, as she regretted her decision of enrolling the academy.

Her thoughts were fully occupied with how much she wanted to stand up and run away from there, and even though she wasn't really listening to her young teacher's words, she suddenly caught a part of what he was saying, "you have until I return to complete this essay. You're allowed to work in pairs, but no more than that."

Aura frowned. _"... No way,"_ she thought, completely loathing the idea of pairing up with someone else. She then looked up at the blackboard to see the word "**MASHOU**" written on it, so she came to the conclusion the essay was about such thing. The next things she did was taking paper and pencil in her hands and focus, intending to complete the essay without any of her classmate's help. She's always been like that; lonely, silent and independent. She didn't like to cooperate with others, not only because she disliked to be in company, but because she liked to do things alone.

"Shimizu-san seems really smart, don't you think Rin?" a blonde girl commented, as she stared at the white-haired girl with glowy, green eyes.

"Smart?" Rin, who was sitting next to the blonde girl, turned to look at the new student with curiosity as he didn't have the chance to study her earlier, and when his electric blue eyes found her sitting alone a few desks away, the words dull, serious and cold instantly came to his mind. He knew judging a book by its cover wasn't the right thing to do, but that was the impression the girl's facial expression gave him. Honestly, he didn't really like her **–** or at least he thought he wouldn't if he actually knew her.

_"I wonder... if Shimizu-san would like to do the essay with me...?"_ the blonde girl thought, realising this was her perfect chance to befriend her.

**_._**

**_._**

**_._**

"S... Shimizu-san?" A shy, insecure voice suddenly spoke her name, distracting her from the essay. "C... can we, huh..."

Aura looked up to see one of her eight classmates, and as the latter was trying to put her words together, the former took the opportunity to study her. The girl's hair was blonde, her eyes were colored a bright, energetic green, and her cheeks were deeply flushed. Another thing Aura noticed was that the blonde girl was wearing a colorful, butterfly-themed kimono instead of the academy's uniform **–** something she found unfair as Mephisto didn't allow her to wear her plain white kimono and forced the uniform on her.

"C**–**can we do the essay together?!" The blonde girl finally managed to say, the enthusiasm on her voice causing the white-haired girl to flinch. "Please!"

Aura blinked in shock, feeling overwhelmed by the blonde girl's shiny, cheerful eyes fixed on her. Being looked at was something she certainly couldn't stand, and the fact this girl was staring at her with excitement blazing on her eyes caused her to feel uncomfortable. "Sorry, but I want to do this alone," she finally replied the blonde's question, as she glanced away in order to avoid eye-contact.

"A**–**ah... I see..." Suddenly, the shine on the girl's green eyes started to fade away, just as though she had lost all the hope she had. Truth to be told, she was dissapointed; she had promised herself she'd definitely make a friend that day, and the fact her new classmate turned her down so crudely hurt her feelings. She wasn't completely defeated, though. _"I can't give up now... I'll... definitely do it today!"_ She mentally told herself to gather confidence before taking to the next step. "U**–**um, Shimizu-san..." She spoke once again, "... C**–**can we at least be friends?"

"... Why would you want to become friends with me? You don't even know me." Aura couldn't help but frown. She couldn't understand it; why people always sought company from others.

"That's true... but I thought you looked like a nice person... so I wanted to see if we could become friends!" She spoke, as she gave the white-haired girl her most sincere smile.

"... So oblivious," Aura muttered, slightly bothered by how innocent the blonde girl was, "Friends aren't given; you're supposed to make them." There was a pause, until she finally decided to give the decisive blow by saying, "Sorry, but I'm not interested in becoming friends with someone like you—"

"Oi!" Someone suddenly yelled at her, and when she looked up, she realised it was none else than the half-demon boy she was interested in. His name was Okumura Rin, if she remembered correctly. "Quit being so friggin' rude with Shiemi already!"

As soon as she registered what he told her, Aura shot a fierce glare at him. "Who talked to you?" She asked, as she wore an annoyed frown across her face. "Go mind your own business, you dumbass."

At that point, the half-demon boy couldn't stand it anymore and stood up from his seat. He had been restraining himself since the very moment the white-haired girl started treating Shiemi in such a cold, mean way, but now that she had insulted him as well, there was no way he could keep quiet and let it be. Besides, he didn't like her. He didn't really know anything about her, but something told him she was one of those obnoxious, know-it-all girls.

"Just who the hell do you think you are?!" Rin yelled, truly pissed off by the girl's attitude. "Just because you're a little smart, doesn't mean you should go around treating people like that, you idiot!"

Honestly, the white-haired girl didn't understand why she was being yelled at. She only had been honest, and she was pretty sure that honesty was a good thing.

"Idiot...?" Aura repeated, as her once calm facial expression disfigured into an annoyed frown. She then stood up from her desk, and Mephisto, who was still disguised as a small puppy, jumped off her lap. "You're the only idiot here, getting into other people's business." She spoke, as her glare followed the dark-haired boy making his way towards her. "Besides, don't tell me what to do." She added, "I do what I want. I won't be her friend if I don't feel like it, and I'll be as rude as I want to."

At that point, the half-demon boy was clenching his teeth in rage. He just couldn't stand it, the fact the girl looked so calm despite she had treated Shiemi so rudely. He was angry; so angry he acted by impulse and grabbed her by the collar. She, of course, acted by impulse as well, and slapped him across his face as hard as she could. The whole class was frozen at the scene; they knew someone had to stop the fight, but even so, nobody reacted fast enough to do so. Luckily—

"What's going on here?!" Yukio asked sharply as soon as he stepped inside the classroom and saw the violent, yet ridiculous show his older brother and his new student were doing.

**.  
**

**.**

**.**

In the end, the two half-demons were told to stand out in the hall until they calmed down, and just like their teacher told them to, they shut their mouths and remained quiet. That didn't mean their fight was over, though. Rin shot a fierce glare at the white-haired girl standing right next to him, and she, showing no signs of fear, glared at him back. Aura then stick out her tongue at the dark-haired boy, and he, having no intentions of being outdone, did exactly the same thing to her.

"... Smartass," he murmured.

"... Dumbass," she whispered.

At that point, Yukio's eyebrows were twitching in annoyance at the level of immaturity on the two half-demons' part. "Will you two grow up already?" He asked, as he adjusted his glasses with his index finger. "You're being far worse than kindergarteners."

"But she started it!" Rin yelled as he pointed at the white-haired girl, sounding way more childish than he intended.

Yukio let out a sigh in an attempt to keep calm despite his brother's immaturity. "Do you two realise why you're standing here right now?"

"Because Okumura-kun was being a complete idiot during class?" Aura said, her words causing the dark-haired boy to clench his teeth in anger.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?!" Rin raged, but even before he could say something else, he got cut off by his younger brother.

"No, because you're fellow students, and you're supposed to respect each other," Yukio said with a serious tone of voice, as his turquoise gaze eyed both his older brother and his new student. "Shimizu-san, I know you're still new, but you have to learn to cooperate and get along with others. It's essential to become an exorcist." After saying such words, his turquoise eyes moved to his older brother, who was snickering amusedly since the white-haired girl had been scolded. "And Okumura-kun... Don't start pointless fights. Try to get a grip of yourself next time."

"... It was her fault though," Rin murmured under his breath, earning a glare from the white-haired girl.

"My fault?" Aura said, with no particular emotion on her voice. "Why is it my fault? You were the one who started yelling at me for no reason."

Once again, Rin began to lose his cool. It pissed him off, the fact the white-haired girl was acting as though she had done nothing wrong when she had hurt Shiemi's feelings. "It was your fault, you smartass! Acting like you're better than anyone else!"

_"... Better than anyone else?"_ Aura thought, as she cocked her eyebrows in confusion.

"... It seems you two still haven't understood what it means to get along," Yukio said, as he observed the beginning of a new argument. "Well then, now you two will stay here until I tell you that you can go back inside the classroom." He said, and even before his two students could complain, he added, "take it as an opportunity to cool your heads down and get along with each other." That said, he entered the classroom and left the two half-demons alone, wishing they wouldn't end up killing each other **–** which was pretty likely to happen.

* * *

**A/N: FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! /shot.  
**

**THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING GUYS! Seriously, it means the world to me that you guys take your time to write reviews for this lame ass story of mine /cries hard. THANK YOU! Ah, one thing: I might not update in one week or so /dies. I'm going on a week-long trip to the beach tomorrow (_UGHDONOTWANT_) so... well orz. I'll try to update asap though!**


	4. H & D

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

_"What did I do to get involved in this?"_ Aura thought, as she wondered how much time she was supposed to stand out in the hall._ "I... didn't do anything bad."_

Rin, on his part, was glaring at nowhere in particular. He was trying to ignore the white-haired girl's annoying presence, but it was no use — especially since she was standing far closer than he was comfortable with. Suddenly, she let out some sort of moan that interrupted the deep silence filling the hall, and out of curiosity, he turned to look at her to see she was stretching out herself. Unconsciously, his electric blue eyes started to wander on her slim body, and he noted she was quite small compared to him. _"Eh... She's so short,"_ he thought, pretty sure she was shorter than Shiemi.

His sapphire gaze kept going down on her, until they stopped at the height of her thighs. That was when he spotted something extremely weird on her; something that told him she wasn't human.

"H–holy shit!" Rin yelled, as he jumped back at the sight of a white, fur-tufted tail coming down from under her pink skirt.

"... Ah. It came out," Aura said, as she looked behind her back to see her tail – which was wagging happily, enjoying its freedom. She couldn't help but let out a tired yet relieved sigh, perhaps because she felt a lot better now that her tail was completely free. She was completely lost on the sensation of freedom she was feeling, but she snapped back to reality as soon as she realised she was being stared at. She turned to look at her side, and saw the dark-haired demon boy was staring at her wide-eyed. "... What?" She asked, truly confused at his reaction.

Rin didn't really register what she had said, perhaps because all his attention was on her tail. He then looked up at her head, and realised her ears were pointed – just like his. He was truly surprised, not because she had such weird features, but because there was someone similar to him. He should've had assumed he wasn't the only one with pointed ears and a tail, but he certainly wasn't expecting to find a person with said features in the academy, let alone in his class.

"... Are you alright?" Aura's voice suddenly rang on the half-demon boy's ears, causing him to snap out of his trance.

Rin nodded silently, not finding the right words to ask what the many things he wanted to know.

Aura let out a sigh. "What are you so surprised for?" she asked, still confused. "You have a tail too, don't you?"

"Yeah, but..." Rin started, but his voice trailed off at the end.

The half-demon boy's head was now filled with questions and doubts. Why was she being so carefree about her heritage? Why didn't she even bother to hide her tail from him? Didn't she mind if he knew she wasn't human? Wasn't she worried about him telling the rest of the class she was a demon? He certainly didn't get the girl's open attitude – perhaps because he would never reveal the fact he wasn't fully human so easily. He wasn't really sure how his classmates would react at his demonic heritage, and honestly, he wasn't ready to reveal such a big secret yet.

"Why are you still hiding your tail?" Aura asked, as she eyed him curiously. "Don't you feel uncomfortable?"

Rin blinked. "Now that you mention it..." Indeed, he felt uncomfortable; having his tail wrapped around his waist was quite difficult, plus he felt restricted while doing it.

"I don't really know why you keep hiding it, but you don't need to around me." Aura said, with no particular emotion on her voice. She wasn't exactly worried about him, but she could relate how he felt.

When Rin finally registered what the white-haired girl had said, a toothy grin spread across his face. "R... Really?" He said, his blue eyes gleaming.

"... Yes," Aura replied, not really understanding what was going on inside the dark-haired boy's head. She stared how his facial expression changed to relief when he unwrapped his tail from around his torso and let it swing behind him. As she observed him, she couldn't help but wonder many things – such as who his father was. _"Mephisto-san said his father is a really important demon, but he doesn't really look strong or intimidating,"_ she thought, as she stared at the grinning half-demon boy. _"Just... who is he? We're both half-demons, but... are we any similar?"_

Suddenly, Rin let out a relieved sigh that interrupted her whole trail of thought. "I feel much better now~" He sang happily, his black tail wagging rapidly. A great sensation of relief was filling him, but this feeling got interrupted as soon as he realised something; he wasn't precisely in good terms with the white-haired girl. What on earth would he do if she actually went and revealed he was a half-breed? Maybe that was her plan to begin with. "Y... You won't tell anyone, right?" He asked, sounding nervous.

"Huh...? Tell what?" Aura cocked her eyebrows in confusion, until a realisation snapped into her head. _"He's... trying to pass as a human,"_ she thought, realising he was hiding his demonic heritage in order for his human classmates to accept him. She didn't like what he was doing, but honestly, she could see what his reasons were. To her, humans were intolerant creatures; they'd usually reject what is different to them, and sometimes, they'd even try to erase it — and of course, that included demons and people who had demonic lineage.

"... I won't," she finally replied his question. "I think you're a coward for hiding it, though."

Instantly, Rin frowned at the way she had called him. "... Coward?"

"You want to be friends with our classmates, but you're afraid they'll reject you if they learn you're not human," Aura stated, causing Rin's blue eyes to widen in shock. "That's why you're hiding what you are... right?"

Rin just stared at her. He couldn't believe it; how easily she had seen right through him.

"You're not human. You'll never fit amongst them... so why are you trying to be friends with them? I don't get it," Aura said crudely, almost as though she were heartless. Her words were cold and harsh, but honestly, she didn't mean any harm. She was only warning him of the inevitable, after all. "No matter how hard you try to befriend our classmates, they will reject you, and even if they don't, they'll betray you at some point."

At that point, Rin was clenching his fists. He seriously couldn't stand how cold-hearted she was. "... Shut the hell up already."

Aura's grayish blue eyes widened slightly. "What...?"

"Say whatever the hell you want, but don't just go judging people like that!" Rin almost roared, causing the white-haired girl to flinch slightly. She wasn't exactly scared of him; she was just a bit shocked he had reacted in such a violent way. He, on his part, wanted to keep yelling at her, but even so, he didn't say anything else; instead, he took a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. "You'll always be rejected if you don't change," he said, his intense glare piercing holes on her. "You're... the kind of girl everyone hates."

With that said, he turned around and left – leaving the white-haired girl completely puzzled.

_"... What's with him?"_ Aura thought in shock, her grayish blue eyes following him as he walked away. _"I was just telling him the truth, wasn't I?"_

* * *

**A/N: ... I updated this for once /shot.  
**

**Sorry for the (_EXTREMELY_) late update. I was having problems with my wi-fi, plus I wasn't inspired at all orz. Also, t****his chapter is a tad shorter than the others... PLEASE FORGIVE ME /cries. **Well... thank you so much for your support guys! I seriously appreciate every single alert/review/favorite this story receives! /cries for happiness.  



	5. Affections

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

It had been more or less twenty minutes since the two half-demons were told to stay out in the hall, and since absolutely no sound could be heard from outside the classroom, Yukio assumed they had finally cooled off their heads. Truth to be told, the fact both his older brother and the new student were so quiet shocked him a bit, perhaps because he knew well Rin's hot temper, and certainly wasn't expecting him to calm down so easily.

Supposing his two demon students were finally behaving well, Yukio excused himself from his class and stepped outside the room in order to call back the two students that were outside. He opened his mouth to tell the two half-demons they already could go inside the classroom, but closed it without saying a word when he realised there was nobody in the long, dark hall. Rin and Aura, who were supposed to be standing right there, were missing.

Yukio couldn't help but let out a tired, yet annoyed sigh. "... Unbelievable," was all he could say, as he regretted not having used the baryon punishment with them.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Right at that moment, Aura was standing in the principal hall of the academy, which was completely deserted as all the students were either in their respective classes or in their dorms. The hall was enormous, yet she could hear the echo of her own steps as there was absolutely none breaking the deep, soothing silence filling it. She loved it; being in silent places, with absolutely no souls around her. She certainly was enjoying the fact there were no voices ringing on her ears, but sadly to her, the heavy silence she was enjoying so much was soon to be interrupted.

"Oh, there you are~!" As soon as she heard that recognizable voice, the white-haired girl turned around to see a certain fluffy puppy with a big, pink ribbon around its neck.

"Ah, Mephisto-san," was what she said at the sight of the little animal. "I thought you still were in the class."

"I was, but I went to look for you as soon as I realised you had left," Mephisto simply said. There was a small pause, until he broke the silence by asking, "things aren't going well with Okumura Rin-kun, are they?" A frown took place on the white-haired girl's place, her usually dull, emotionless facial expression now displaying a mixture annoyance and unease. "It seems to me you two aren't getting along."

"... There's no way we can get along." Aura replied coldly at the demon's statement. "I... really hate the ones like him."

Mephisto looked at her with curiosity on his eyes. "The ones like him?"

"... People who lie about themselves to look good," was the only explanation she gave him.

Certainly, the fact Rin was hiding his lineage pissed her off to no end — perhaps because she was jealous of him. Back when she was younger, she never bothered to hide the fact she was a half-demon as she thought that being honest about herself was the right thing to do, although instead of acceptance, all she got was rejection due to her demonic heritage. Deep inside herself, she regretted the fact she never tried to hide who she was, and she was truly jealous of the dark-haired demon boy because he was doing what she never had the chance to do.

"Oh, that's such a pity," Mephisto replied at the girl's words. "I honestly thought you two were going to get along pretty well, being that you both are really similar,"

_"... Similar?"_ Aura thought, as she cocked her eyebrows in both confusion and annoyance. _"I don't see how."_ Honestly, all she wanted at that point was to clear her mind and rest a bit — which reminded her she still didn't know where she was going to stay. "By the way, Mephisto-san," she started, as she lowered her gaze to look at the puppy-disguised demon. "Where am I going to stay from now on?"

**.**

**.**

**.**

_"I'm... going to stay here?"_ Aura thought, as she stared wide-eyed at the huge residence right in front of her. It was the old male dormitory of the academy, and apparently, it was abandoned. None of that mattered to her, though; actually, the fact it was abandoned made her happy as she was going to have both the tranquility and silence she needed so much. Obviously, it didn't look as expensive and luxurious as the other buildings of the academy, but even so, she didn't mind. She wasn't the kind of person who actually cared about that kind of details, after all.

"The female dormitory is already full, therefore you'll have to stay here from now on," Mephisto explained, not being completely honest with her as the female dorm wasn't full. In truth, the only reason why he didn't place Aura in the female dorm along with other female students was because he wanted to avoid problems; problems like normal students finding out about demons, exorcism and the academy's cram school. Those kind of situations would be quite troublesome, and were better off avoided. "It might not be what you probably were expecting, but I hope it's to your liking~"

"It's... perfect," was all Aura managed to say as she stared at her new home in awe.

Mephisto blinked. "... It is?" He asked, truly surprised by the white-haired girl's positive reaction over living in an abandoned, old, haunted-like male dormitory.

Aura's response was an affirmative nod. "I love it."

"I'm truly pleased to hear that~" Mephisto said happily, feeling glad since the white-haired girl wasn't as troublesome as he was expecting her to be. "Oh, by the way," he started when he remembered he had yet to mention an important detail. "Feel free to pick any room you want; this dormitory is pretty much abandoned, after all~!"

_"... Pretty much?"_ Aura thought, wondering what he meant by that.

"Alright then, I shall get going," Mephisto simply said, as he turned around and began to walk away. "See you later, ojou-san~!"

"... See you," was all Aura said, as she followed the little dog with suspicious, grayish blue eyes.

**.**

**.**

**.**

_"A coward, huh? Coward my ass."_ Rin thought in annoyance, as he cooked small portions of chicken and made sure they wouldn't get burnt. _"Just what the hell is wrong with her...? Damn it." _

Right at that moment, the half-demon boy was at the kitchen of the dorm in which he and his twin brother were living, trying to distract himself by doing productive things — such as cooking. He certainly liked cooking; he enjoyed doing so, plus he was especially good at it. Even so, despite the fact it was one of his favorite activities, it didn't seem to work to drive a certain annoying, white-haired girl out of his mind. He thought he'd eventually calm down and forget her rude words, but it seemed like he was wrong; he still could feel his blood boiling in anger, after all.

He kept on cursing inside his head, but his inner debate was interrupted when he suddenly started to hear steps behind him. He didn't even bother to turn around to see who it was, though; after all, he had pretty much an idea of who it was. "Yo, Yukio," he said, his electric blue eyes still stuck on his cooking. "Before you start to scold me, let me tell you that I came here because—"

"I'm not Okumura-sensei," a soft, yet cold voice suddenly cut him off.

He didn't even turn around to see who was the owner of that voice, but he could tell who it was. Who else would have such an empty, emotionless voice? It didn't take him more than an instant to realise it; it belonged to none other than the white-haired girl with whom he had an argument just earlier — and honestly, the only reason why he recognised her voice so easily was because he found it so dull and inexpressive to the point it annoyed him. Also, he still could hear her words echoing on his head — which, of course, annoyed him as well.

"Eh... I didn't know you lived here," Aura said, just as though she were trying to start a conversation. "Is Okumura-sensei living here as well?"

Rin didn't say anything; he just continued with his cooking, completely ignoring the half-demon girl's existence.

Aura, on her part, silently stared at him, until she decided to break the silence once and for all. "Do you hate me?" She asked, a strange hint of true innocence on her voice.

"... I guess you could say that," was the dark-haired half-demon's crude reply.

Aura's facial expression was as stoic as always, and even though she didn't really show it, she was a bit shocked. She seriously couldn't believe it; it was her very first day at the academy, yet she already had made an enemy. How come she was so easy to hate? She was aware of the fact the half-demon boy was offended by what she had told him, but in all honesty, she didn't think it'd be to the extent he'd hate her. Not that she cared about how other people felt towards her, though.

"I see." She said, showing no signs of guilt, remorse, sadness or pain. "I don't mind, though. I'm used to people hating me."

Rin's electric blue eyes widened in shock, perhaps because what she had said kind of reminded him of himself. For a second, he felt a heavy feeling of guilt on his chest — although it quickly vanished as soon as he remembered how angry and annoyed he was. Truthfully, she didn't really deserve any kindness or compasion; after all, she was the one who basically told him he'll always be hated by everyone no matter what he does or how hard he tries to be a nice person.

"So... what do you want?" Rin asked, an obvious hint of annoyance on his voice. "Are you gonna stand there all day or what?"

"I..." Aura started, but didn't finish what she was saying being that she was asking herself the same question. _"What do I want?"_ She thought, wondering why she didn't allow herself to leave. Certainly, she wasn't the kind of person who worried about others, but even so, she couldn't help but feel a slight, yet hard to ignore feeling of guilt inside her chest for what she had told Rin earlier. "... I... just want to apologize," she finally replied, her words causing the half-demon boy to finally look up from his cooking.

Rin turned to look at her, and blinked his wide, electric blue eyes in complete shock. "Y... You what?"

"I'm sorry for what I said... and also for slapping you," Aura apologized sincerely, and after a short pause, she added, "I don't regret my words, though."

Rin's shocked facial expression got replaced by an annoyed frown. _"That's the same as saying you're not sorry, isn't it...?"_

"However, I didn't mean any harm when I told you that, so... I'm sorry. Please forgive me." With that said, she bowed at him.

No words came out from Rin's mouth, perhaps because he was too shocked to even speak. An apology was the last thing he was expecting from a cold, rude person like her, after all. For a second, he considered the possibility she could be lying, but something told him that her words were completely sincere. He had the feeling he was going to end up repenting it, but even so, he decided to believe in her and forgive her. "N... No needs to be so formal," he said sheepishly, as he scratched the back of his neck. "Huh... What was your name again?"

_"... Did he forgive me?"_ Aura wondered innerly, as she simply replied his question, "Shimizu Aura."

"Shimizu... Aura?" Rin said curiously, liking the way the white-haired girl's eccentric name rolled out in his tongue. "Is that some kinda code name?"

"... No, it's my real name." Aura replied with a slight, yet noticeable hint of annoyance on her voice.

"Wha... Seriously?!" Rin suddenly burst out, his loud tone of voice causing Aura to flinch. "That's one weird name! How do you even write it?**[1]**"

"... 'Rin' is a pretty weird name too." Aura said, as she shot an intense, angry glare at the half-demon boy.

"... 'Aura' is way weirder, though," Rin replied back, which annoyed her even more than how she already was.

She certainly didn't like it; the word "weird". It might be a good, positive adjective to some people, but to her, it was kind of insulting — perhaps because during her early years of life, people would call her 'weird' and avoid her because of her demonic lineage. She was weird, so she was always put aside. She was weird, so she always stood out in crowds. She was weird, so there was no way she could blend with normal humans — and that was one of the many reasons why she loathed them.

"I think it's pretty cool," Rin commented with enthusiasm, his cheerful voice interrupting the girl's deep trail of thought. "It sounds like the name of a manga character!"

_"... A manga character?"_ Aura thought, as she blinked her grayish blue eyes at his apparently praising words. "... Thanks," was all she said, not really sure whether she should be thankful or not.

Rin just gave her a toothy grin, which, for some reason she didn't understand herself, caused her to feel a strange, yet pleasing warm feeling inside her chest. She's never felt something similar in her life, and she couldn't help but feel curious about what kind of feeling it was — although her thoughts about it were completely driven out from her mind as soon as she started to smell something weird. "... I smell something burning," she commented, and as soon as Rin registered what she had said, he freaked out and turned around to look at his forgotten cooking.

_"This guy..."_ Aura couldn't help but let out a sigh._ "He's such an idiot."_

* * *

******[1]** "Aura" might sound like a very simple name, but it's quite hard for the japanese to figure out how it's supposed to be written since there are many ways to write it.

In case you're curious, Aura's name is written in an extremely rare way: 生楽 **(**生 = life ; 楽 = pleasure — its meaning could be interpreted as "life with pleasure" or "pleasurable life"**)****  
**

**A/N: Typos, typos everywhere /dies.**

**Seriously, I re-read this like, twenty times, and I spotted typos every time I did orz. I hope it's alright now, though... /dies again.**

**Well, as I always say; thank you so much for everything guys! I seriously can't express how happy I feel when I see this story has new feedback! /hugs you all.**


	6. Feelings

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

"Ah, Okumura-sensei," was what Aura said when she spotted her anti-demon pharmacology teacher sitting at one of the tables of the dorm's neglected dining hall. "Good morning."

As soon as Yukio heard the white-haired girl's soft voice, he lifted up his turquoise eyes to see her standing quietly in the entrance of the dining hall. He noted a slight, yet noticeable hint of surprise on her face, almost as though she wasn't really expecting to come across him. The truth was, she wasn't expecting to see anyone that morning; the dorm had been so quiet during the whole night that she had forgot the fact she was sharing it with two other people, after all.

"Good morning, Shimizu-san," he greeted, as he gave her a gentle smile.

"Umm... Okumura-sensei..." Aura started, and Yukio looked up at her with confusion. "I'm sorry... for leaving yesterday when you told me not to."

"It's okay, Shimizu-san," Yukio said, with absolutely no signs of anger on his face. "I don't want something like that happening again, though."

"O... okay." Aura said, as she nodded.

Right at that moment, all she could think was that she still wasn't used to this kind of situation. Her mornings, or rather, her entire days used to be calm, silent and lonely since no relationships formed part of her life; therefore, to her, situations like this one were awkward and tiresome as she wasn't accustomed to be with others. Even so, despite the fact she didn't really like to be in company, she chose to stay in the dining room along with her teacher, and without pronouncing a word, she made her way to the table in which her teacher was sitting and took a seat in front of him.

"W... Where is Rin?" Aura asked, not because she was interested about the boy's whereabouts but to avoid an awkward silence to take place between herself and her teacher.

"Nii-san?" Yukio said, surprised at the fact the white-haired girl had asked about his brother. "He's probably sleeping. He must be about to wake up, though... I hope."

_"Nii-san?"_ Aura thought, truly shocked at the way Yukio had called Rin. She knew they were family as they both shared the same surname, but in all honesty, she didn't think they were brothers nor did she expect Rin would be the elder and Yukio the younger. "I see," she said, and after a short pause, she commented, "I can't believe you're not the older brother, Okumura-sensei. It really seems it's the other way around..."

Yukio smiled at the girl's words. "I get that a lot," he spoke, and Aura looked at him curiously. "Nii-san is the older brother in name only anyway."

"I see," was all Aura said, being that she had absolutely no skills to keep on conversations.

A deep silence followed, until one of them finally decided to break it. "Shimizu-san," Yukio started, and Aura lifted up her grayish blue eyes to look at him.

"What is it, Okumura-sensei?" She asked, with slight curiosity on her voice.

"There's no need for you to call me so formally when we're not in class," Yukio said, as his lips curved into a warm smile. "We're not teacher and student right now, after all."

A light, pinkish blush spread on Aura's cheeks, as she stared at her young teacher in awe. "O... Okay," she mumbled shyly, as she avoided to make eye-contact with him. "Y**–**Yukio-kun."

And so, a soft, calm atmopshere took over the whole room. It was soon to be interrupted, though.

"YUKIO!" The shout of a familiar voice interrupted the silence in the dorm, and even before both Yukio and Aura could react at what was going on, the same person who had shouted just an instant ago dashed inside the dining hall. Of course, it was none else than Rin; his dark hair was a complete mess, and his uniform wasn't any better. "Why the hell didn't you wake me up?!" He demanded angrily, pointing at him accusingly with the same hand he was holding his tie.

"Finish to dress up, Nii-san," Yukio said, pointing out the fact Rin had yet to button his shirt and put on his tie. "Besides, I did try to wake you up. Four times, to be exact."

"You should've tried one more time!" Rin retorted, and as he glared at his younger brother, he suddenly saw someone out of the corner of his eye; to be more precise, a girl with long, white hair. That was when he noticed that Aura was in the room as well. "Ah... Good morning." Certainly, he hadn't noticed her; it seemed like she was the kind of silent person that always passes unnoticed.

Aura didn't register right away what Rin had told her, perhaps because she was too busy staring at Yukio with somewhat sparkly eyes.

An annoyed frown quickly took over the half-demon boy's face. "Oi, Aura."

When Aura heard her name being pronounced by a certain half-demon boy, she finally snapped out of her trance and gave herself a little shake. "G... Good morning," she greeted, as she turned to look at Rin, who was eyeing her with wary sapphire blue eyes. She felt somewhat threatened by the way he was looking at her, so she quickly stood up from where she was sitting in order to leave. "I'll be going then," she said, as she rushed towards the exit of the dining room. "S... See you guys." With that said, she ran away, leaving the Okumura twins alone.

A deep silence followed, until Rin broke it by asking, "what did you tell her?"

"What do you mean?" Yukio replied with another question, truly clueless at the weird question.

"She was acting strange," Rin said with a hint of annoyance on his voice.

Yukio cocked an eyebrow at his older brother. "How can you tell whether she's acting strange or not? You've not known her for more than a day, Nii-san."

It was true; Rin hadn't known her for more than one single day, but still, he could tell she was acting weird in a way. Her grayish blue eyes were glassy and shiny, and there was a pinkish blush adorning her cheeks; moreover, her usually stoic facial expression was strangely soft and warm. In brief; she was acting totally different from the way she had the day before.

**.**

**.**

**.**

It was midday, and both Rin and Yukio were having lunch in their usual spot; a fountain placed right in the middle of the academy's courtyard. Unlike most of the times, Shiemi wasn't there with them, and that might be the reason why a deep silence quickly took place between the twin brothers. Even though Yukio was glad that his older brother was being silent for once, he couldn't help but wonder what was going on inside his head, so out of curiosity, he lifted up his turquoise gaze to find Rin staring in the direction in which Shiemi was. Naturally, Yukio came to the conclusion the half-demon boy was silent because he was too busy daydreaming about the blonde girl, although he realised his assumption was wrong as soon as he noticed his brother's facial expression reflected nothing but anger. Yukio then turned to look at the direction in which Rin was staring, or rather, glaring at, and noticed that his new student, Shimizu Aura, was sitting right next to Shiemi.

_"Why is she being so nice with Shiemi?"_ Rin thought in annoyance, his glare nailed on the white-haired girl._ "Even though she was so mean to her yesterday..."_

"Did something happen between you and Shimizu-san?" His brother's voice suddenly rang in his ears, interrupting his trail of thought.

"... Why do you ask?" Rin asked, as he wore a confused, yet annoyed frown across his face.

Yukio instantly noticed his older brother's sudden irritation at the mention of the white-haired girl, and even though he knew that pissing Rin off wasn't a good idea, he decided to go on with the conversation he had started. "You've been staring at her for a long time," he pointed out, as he observed how the annoyance on his brother's angered frown got deeper. "Are you two still quarreled?"

Rin's annoyed facial expression softened a bit, although the glare was still there. "Not really," he finally replied, not looking away from the white-haired girl. "She pisses me off, though."

Yukio cocked his eyebrows at his brother's words. "How so?" He asked, "Shimizu-san hasn't even talked to you today, has she?"

Rin didn't say anything, perhaps because he didn't find the right words to reply his brother's question. He just kept staring at the same direction, his glare now gone from his face.

**.**

**.**

**.**

"Shimizu-san?" Shiemi pronounced softly, causing the alluded one to snap out of her trance.

"Hm? What is it, Moriyama-san?" Aura asked, as she looked at the blonde girl with no particular emotion on her grayish blue eyes.

"T..." Shiemi tried to start, yet her shyness stopped her from finishing what she was saying. "T... thank you for having lunch with me today! I... I'm grateful... I really am!"

Aura blinked in confusion, completely unable to understand why the blonde girl was acting in such a flustered way. "You're welcome," was all she said with that stoic, emotionless voice of hers. She didn't really show it as she was absolutely no good when it came to display emotions, but deep inside herself, she was feeling something she assumed it was happiness. She actually felt flattered; it was the very first time a person thanked her for her presence, after all.

Aura wasn't precisely a talkative person, hence instead of beginning a conversation with her blonde classmate, she remained quiet and glanced away at nowhere in particular. Her grayish blue eyes wandered aimlessly around the whole area, and stopped at a certain boy that was sitting on the edge of the courtyard's fountain. She was pretty far away to see what kind of expression the dark-haired boy was wearing across his face, although she could tell he was embarrassed to have been caught staring in her direction since he instantly turned around when he realised she was staring at him back.

"Moriyama-san..." Aura started, her eyes still glued on the half-demon boy, who was now pretending not to have seen her. "What do you think about Rin?"

"Rin?" Shiemi pronounced curiously, as she blinked her big, lively green eyes, innerly wondering why the white-haired girl would suddenly ask about Rin. "He's..." She was about to say that Rin was her friend, although she chose not to say such a thing as she remembered that time when Rin himself told Suguro otherwise. "He's a nice person," she spoke, as a warm smile spread on her face. "What about you, Shimizu-san? What do you think about him?"

Aura didn't reply right away; instead, she gave the question some thought, as she looked up at the blue, cloudless sky above her head.

"He pisses me off," was her only and final reply.

**.**

**.**

**.**

"Why am I the only one who will do this exercise, Tsubaki-sensei?" Aura asked, sounding quite rude even though she didn't really mean to.

"The rest of the class did it the previous class, Shimizu-kun," was the teacher's simple response. "You have to do it just like Kamiki-kun, Suguro-kun and the rest of your classmates did."

Right at that moment, all the students of the cram school were having physical athletics lessons; however, the white-haired girl was the only one who was going to do the exercise. It was completely new to her, but to the rest of her classmares, it was nothing but a review of the previous lesson. When the teacher instructed her to, she slid down the wall into arena below, and stared at the caged demons that were looking at her as though she were some sort of delicious snack.

_"Leapers, huh?"_ Aura thought, feeling sorry for them as she could tell they didn't like to be encaged. She still didn't know what the exercise was about, hence she looked up at her teacher with confusion. "Am I supposed to kill them?" She shouted from below, on the arena.

Her words truly shocked her teacher, especially since they came from a small, fragile girl like her. "N**–**Not at all, Shimizu-kun! The purpose of this exercise is to help you get used to dealing with demon movements!" The teacher yelled from above, "I'll release only one of them, and I want you to run away from it and dodge every of its attacks!" After Aura gave him a nod indicating she was ready, the teacher released one of the frog demons and shouted, "now, Shimizu-kun!"

Just as expected, the first thing the leaper did was dashing towards Aura with the intention of attacking her. She, however, didn't move a single centimeter.

"W... What the hell is she doing?!" Suguro yelled, as he and everyone else stared in shock at the white-haired girl, who wasn't even bothering to run away from a possible death.

"Damn, that idiot!" Rin snapped as he quickly stood up from where he was sitting. He was about to slid down into the arena to save the white-haired girl, but he stopped as soon as he realised the leaper was quiet. His electric blue eyes widened at what he was seeing; the violent demon was now still a few centimetres away from the white-haired girl.

A cold, annoyed glare formed on Aura's face. "Don't you dare," she growled at the leaper, and it recoiled in fright.

"Huh...? This doesn't happen often," the teacher commented, quite surprised at the fact the frog demon was so scared of a small girl like Aura.

_"She... had everything under control from the beginning, huh?"_ Rin thought, as he stared down at the calm, white-haired girl. At first it shocked him that the demon had backed off so easily, but then, he realised he was forgetting an important detail; Shimizu Aura wasn't human. Just like him, she was a half-demon, half-human breed, and that might be the reason why the demon didn't attack her.

**.**

**.**

**.**

When the physical athletics class finally finished, the first thing Rin did was heading to the classroom in which the cram school was always carried on; classroom one thousand one hundred and six. When he stepped inside said classroom, he saw nothing out of the ordinary; the classroom was as neglected and dirty as ever, and the number of students in the room was still poor. However, when he looked more carefully, he noticed something that caught his eye; Shimizu Aura, the cold-hearted, antisocial demon girl, was actually socializing with her classmates, or more specifically, with the Kyoto trio.

"So, what's a meister?" Aura asked, earning a glare from the delinquent-looking boy that was sitting next to her.

"Seriously? You still don't know that?" Suguro asked, truly annoyed at the white-haired girl's lack of responsability.

Aura lifted an eyebrow at the last question. "No, I don't," she simply replied. "I wouldn't be asking you if I knew it, Suguro-kun."

The boy who had a blonde streak through his brown hair couldn't help but let out a sigh. "Well then, I'll explain it to you. A meister is—"

"I don't want to hear it from you," Aura cut him off, and then turned around to look at the two boys that were sitting in the desk of behind. "I want Miwa-kun to explain it to me."

"Y... you little..." Suguro growled, cringing in annoyance as his two friends let out an amused laugh.

_"W... what the hell...?"_ Rin thought in shock, truly confused at the white-haired girl's sudden decision of interacting with others. Certainly, she was acting weird.

"If you want to become an exorcist, you have to get the title of meister first. There are five categories of meister; knight, dragoon, tamer, aria and doctor. An exorcist can get more than one, though," Konekomaru explained, as Aura heard him carefully. "In short, a meister is a general term for an exorcist's style of combat, so depending on the meister the fight style changes."

"Is that so..." Aura mumbled, as she looked at the short, bald boy in awe. "Thank you, Miwa-kun. You're really smart."

"Y... You're welcome," Konekomaru said, as he smiled shyly.

"So... what will you guys pick?" Aura asked, as she looked at the three boys with curious eyes.

"Shima-san and I will likely pick aria," Konekomaru replied, "Bon, on the other hand, will pick two meisters; aria and dragoon."

"Really?" Aura asked in surprise, as she turned to look at Suguro, who was wearing quite a cocky expression across his face. "Huh... Something tells me he won't make it,"

The white-haired girl's words caused Suguro to cringe in anger, but even before he could yell something, his pink-haired friend spoke, "what about you, Aura-chan? What will you pick?"

"What... will I pick?" Aura stopped and gave the question some thought. What was she going to pick? How was she supposed to pick anything when she still wasn't sure whether she wanted to be an exorcist or not? The truth was that the only reason why she had enrolled the academy was because she wanted to meet half-demons like her, and now that she had met Rin, what else was she supposed to do there? All she could do was leave, wasn't it? "I... haven't decided yet," she lied, wondering if it would be okay for her to stay at True Cross Academy for a little more time.

"I think you should pick doctor, Aura-chan~" Shima commented goofily, "you'd be a pretty adorable nurse, after all~!"

Instead of laughing or blushing like other girls would do, Aura shot an intense glare at the pink-haired boy, which made him flinch.

_"S... Scary,"_ Shima thought, as he felt chills running down his spine.

"I think you could have talent to be a tamer, Shimizu-san," Konekomaru commented, and the white-haired girl looked at him with confusion.

"Really?" Aura asked, as she tilted her head. "What makes you think that?"

"You seriously don't realise it?" Suguro asked, as he frowned in annoyance. "A demon tried to attack you but it backed off in the end; that pretty much shows that you have affinity with demons, doesn't it?"

Aura frowned. _"That's because... I'm part demon myself,"_ she thought, but for some reason didn't dare to say out of loud.

**.**

**.**

**.**

_"Aria... Doctor... What should I pick?"_ Aura thought, as she made her way to the old, male dormitory after a long, tiresome day. _"Why... am I thinking about this?"_

No matter how hard she tried to, she couldn't drive the conversation she had with the Kyoto trio away from her mind. Could it be she was growing interested in becoming an exorcist? She didn't know anymore. When the leaper tried to attack her back in the physical athletics class, she realised something; not all demons are well-natured. Mephisto had told her so, but she just didn't want to believe it as she's never had problems with demons before. This day, however, she almost got killed by one, and she knew that her heritage was the only thing that had saved her.

_"What will I do if a powerful demon tries to kill me?"_ Aura thought, reconsidering the idea of staying at the academy. _"I should know how to defend myself... shouldn't I?"_

All this matter about demons and exorcism was fully occupying her mind – although she forgot about it as soon as she smelt a delicious aroma invading the air. She didn't know what food was being cooked right at that moment, but she could tell it had meat, which was something she loved. Quickly, she made her way to the dorm's dining hall, and just as she expected, she saw that Rin was cooking there.

"Hello there," Aura said, as she approached the half-demon boy.

"Hey," Rin said, not even bothering to look up from his cooking.

A deep silence followed, and even though Aura enjoyed the silence, she decided to break it as it was becoming too awkward for her to handle.

"Um... Do you cook everyday?" She asked, as she innerly cursed herself for being unable to come up with a better question.

"Yeah," Rin replied, his tone of voice suggesting that he didn't really want to talk with her. "Yukio sucks at cooking so I have to cook for both of us everyday."

"... I see," was all Aura said, as she stared at him.

Another deep silence followed, and once again, Aura was the one who broke it.

"You're going to pick knight, right? I mean... You're always carrying a sword around, so..." Aura asked, attempting to start a conversation with the half-demon boy. "I still don't know what meister I'm going to pick... I was talking about it with Suguro-kun, Miwa-kun and Shima-kun today but—"

"You're good at faking, aren't you?" Rin suddenly cut her off, his words confusing the white-haired girl. "Acting all nice and cute..."

_"Nice... and cute?"_ Aura thought, totally clueless about what he meant. That didn't mean she wasn't going to argue, though. "Faking...? Says the one who is always pretending to be a normal human," she said, causing Rin to cringe in anger. "Besides, I'm not faking. I'm..." There was a short pause, and then she finally finished what she was saying, "I'm just tired of being the kind of girl that everyone hates."

Rin's electric blue eyes widened slightly at her words. _"You're... the kind of girl everyone hates" – _ that was what he had told her the previous day. Could it be she actually took it to heart?

"I... I don't hate—" Rin was about to tell her how he felt. However, in the end, he didn't get to say anything. She had left when he wasn't looking, after all.

* * *

**A/N: ... /cries.  
**

**I swear guys, I'm dissapointed with myself. I tried to write a somewhat long chapter, but I suck so I couldn't orz. Seriously, this took me a few days, and when I finally finished it I was like, "ohoho, I finally wrote a long chapter~ I'm so proud of myself~" but then I looked at the word counter. 3800 words. UGH. THAT'S NOT THAT LONG. AND I WORKED SO HARD ON IT. AHHH /dies. Well... I hope you liked it anyway... I tried to make it as interesting as possible, I swear orz.**

**Umm... I guess you already know it, but I love reviews~ so please leave me some~ /headshot.**


	7. i—AM

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

It was early in the morning, and just like usual, Yukio was the first one in the dining room of the empty male dormitory. The whole place was filled with a calm, soothing silence, which lasted until it was interrupted by loud steps coming from outside. Naturally, the young, brunette teacher assumed it was none else than Aura as there was no way his older brother have woken up so early **–** although he was soon proven wrong when he saw something he thought he would never see.

"Morning, Yukio," Rin greeted, as he entered the dining room and headed to grab something to eat.

Certainly, Yukio couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was a miracle; something that happened once in a blue. For once, Rin hadn't overslept, and was ready for school at an early time.

"... Good morning, Nii-san," Yukio greeted back, his turquoise eyes fixed on his older brother, who was rushedly eating an onigiri he had grabbed from the kitchen's fridge.

"Have you seen Aura?" Rin asked **–** or, at least, that was what Yukio understood, since the former's mouth was full.

"No," Yukio replied, as he gave his dark-haired brother a dubious look. "Shimizu-san didn't come here today."

"... I see," Rin replied, with a hint of dissapointment on his voice. "Well, I'll be going then!"

Yukio just stared at Rin as he left the dining room, and he couldn't help but wonder what on earth was going on inside his head.

**.**

**.**

**.**

The weather was hot; so hot she barely could stand it. To top it off, it was midday; the moment of the day in which the sun was as strong as it could be. Due to the intense heat, her usually cold skin was now warm, and even though she couldn't see her own face, she knew there was a light, feverish blush adorning her cheeks. She certainly didn't like it; those days people considered as perfect to go to the beach. Then again, she didn't even like the beach, or anything that had to do with sun exposure. Her delicate, pale skin always ended up burnt and sore if she let the sunlight touch it, hence she always made sure to avoid it as much as posible; hence at that moment, she was sheltering under one of the many trees in the academy's large courtyard.

Unlike the majority of the students, Aura wasn't having lunch with her friends or classmates. She was alone; just her and the textbook she used for the grimoire class. Not that she cared, though. In truth, she didn't dislike being alone. _"In christianised Europe, the church divided books of two kinds; those that dealt with 'natural magic', and those that dealt in 'demonic magic'," _she read to herself, trying to memorize it. _"The former was acceptable, because it had relation to God. The latter, however, wasn't acceptable, because it was believed that such magic didn't come from God but from Satan and his demons—"_

"Oi," the voice of a certain half-demon boy suddenly rang on her ears, interrupting her study.

Aura's face twisted into an annoyed frown. She just ignored his presence, and kept on reading. _"These grimoires dealt in such topics as necromancy, divination—"_

"Oi!" This time the voice of the half-demon boy had sounded a little louder, although she still wasn't willing to pay any attention to him.

_"And demonology. Despite this, there is evidence that—"_ Suddenly, she felt a strong smack on her head that completely distracted her from what she was reading.

She quickly turned around to glare at the half-demon boy, and even before she could yell something at him, he spoke, "Don't ignore me, idiot."

After glaring at Rin for a few seconds, Aura's gaze went back to her textbook. "I just thought you wouldn't want to talk to me, since you hate me," she said, trying to avoid his sapphire gaze. Her cold tone of voice didn't suggest that she was hurt or anguished in the slightest, and thus he assumed she didn't care about how he felt towards her. However, he was proven wrong when she added, "Besides, I don't want to talk with you. My chest... hurts when you're around."

Rin didn't say anything, perhaps because he was in shock. He couldn't believe it; the fact she was so blunt about the way she felt.

Aura, who was trying to focus on her grimoire studies, suddenly saw out of the corner of her eye that Rin had knelt near her. As expected, she didn't speak a single word; she still didn't want to talk with him, hence she decided to simply ignore his presence. Much to her surprise, pretending to be alone and keep on studying was harder than she expected; she could feel that his gaze was on her, and it was starting to bother her to the point she couldn't concentrate on her studies. "Umm... Do you need anything**—**"

"Here," Rin suddenly cut her off, as he clumsily shoved a bentō box to her.

Aura blinked. "... Huh?" The bentō box was still closed, but she could smell a delicious aroma of food coming from it that made her mouth water. "W... Why**—**"

"I... made it for you. As an apology," Rin explained, his eyes avoiding hers as though he were embarrassed. "I wanted to give it to you earlier, but I didn't see you in the morning..."

Aura frowned in confusion. _"What is he apologizing for...?"_ She wondered, as she looked down at the bentō box she was holding between her hands.

"I just... wanted to tell you that I don't hate you," Rin said, and Aura stared at him. Her expression was completely blank, although deep inside herself, she was happy to know Rin didn't hate her.

"... I see. Thank you," Aura said, as she placed the bentō box on her lap, and opened it to see what was inside, not really expecting anything special. _"W... Wow."_ It made her eyes sparkle like stars; the variety of delicious food that was inside the bentō box. Honestly, if she hadn't seen Rin cooking before, she would have thought that he had bought it somewhere. It looked as though it had been made by a professional, and certainly, she couldn't believe all that appetizing food was for her.

Rin watched the half-demon girl as she grabbed her chopsticks and started to dig in. For starters, she picked up a piece of meat and shoved it into her mouth, and he just stared at her as she chew it silently, wondering whether she liked it or not. As soon as he saw she had finally swallowed it, he leaned forward to look at her closer and anxiously asked, "W... Was it good?" Honestly, he had confidence in his cooking abilities, yet he still couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about the white-haired girl's opinion. He didn't know what her tastes on food were, after all.

Aura jerked her head to look at the half-demon boy, her grayish blue eyes shining in both awe and happiness. "It's... the best thing I've ever tasted."

As soon as those praising words escaped the white-haired girl's mouth, Rin's electric blue eyes widened in surprise, and a light, reddish blush spread over his cheeks. "I... It can't be that good," he grinned goofily, as he scratched the back of his head. He was truly glad she had liked it, and now that he had apologized to her, the heavy feeling of guilt on his chest wasn't there anymore. "Well then," he said, as he stood up from where he was kneeling. "See you at cram school**—**"

Even before he could finish what he was saying, Aura cut him off, "Want to sit here with me?"

Rin blinked. "... Huh?" Certainly, he wasn't expecting her to invite him to stay with her.

"I mean... lunch time hasn't finished yet, so..." Aura said, yet her voice trailed off at the end. "It's... okay if you don't want to."

**.**

**.**

**.**

In the end, the two half-demons ended up sitting together under the shadow of one of the many trees of the courtyard **–** and inevitably, a deep, and somewhat awkward silence took over.

Aura, on her part, didn't really mind the silence, but Rin didn't feel the same way as her; actually, the lack of conversation between them was making him nervous to the point his whole body was tensed up. He had no idea what he was supposed to say or do at that situation, hence all he did was staring ahead at nowhere in particular.

His eyes just wandered aimlessly around the populated courtyard, but after a few minutes of doing so, he suddenly started to feel the urge to look at the half-demon girl that happened to be sitting next to him, probably because her calm, silent nature made him curious. Very discretly he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, and saw that once again, she was reading her textbook about grimoire studies._ "She sure likes reading..."_ He thought, as he unconsciously stared at her as she studied.

Even though all her attention was on her textbook, Aura instantly felt that the half-demon boy's eyes were on her. "What?" She asked, as she lifted up her gaze to look at him.

As soon as his eyes met with hers, Rin felt his face heat up at the fact she had caught him staring at her. "N**–**nothing," he stuttered awkwardly and quickly turned away.

"... Okay," was all the white-haired half-demon girl said, and then her attention went back to her textbook.

_"... Crap."_ Rin thought, flustered, as he innerly cursed himself for being unable to act like a normal person.

"Well... I'll be going then," Aura's voice suddenly rang on the half-demon boy's ears, causing him to snap out of his trance. "There are a few books I want to borrow from the library, so..."

Rin nodded, and he then stood up from where he was sitting. "See you at the cram school, then."

Aura gave him a nod. "Thank you for having lunch with me today, Rin," she said, "I... like being with you."

Then, the white-haired girl's lips curved into a gentle smile, and that was when Rin's heart skipped a beat. It was the very first time he had seen her smile, and he couldn't help but wonder why on earth she was always hiding it. Truthfully, that warm smile of hers made him forget about how cold and cruel she could be, and instead it made him notice how cute she actually was. He couldn't really explain it, but on his eyes, she had become a lot prettier than before.

"Well then," Aura said, causing Rin to snap back to reality. "See you later,"

"S... see you later," Rin said, as he avoided to make any eye contact with her.

* * *

**A/N: Another update after some time~**

**I seriously apologize for the lack of fluff on this fanfic... It's just... Well, I have no excuses. I simply fail at fluff. I hope you liked it anyway, though!  
**


	8. Presage

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

_"Rin..."_ Aura thought, as she half heard Yukio's anti-demon pharmacology lesson. _"He's acting weird." _

Since their time together during lunch time, Rin wouldn't look at her. During class, he would occasionally turn around to look at the white-haired girl, but as soon as their eyes met, he would look away. _"Is he avoiding me?"_ It frustrated her to the point she couldn't focus on the lesson in the slightest. Her mind was completely somewhere else as she was trying to figure out what was going on with the half-demon boy **–** although she was brought back to reality as soon as she caught some of Yukio's words, "Therefore we'll be going on a week-long training camp next week."

_"... Training camp?"_ Aura thought, quite shocked at her young teacher's sudden announcement.

"The training camp isn't compulsory, so please mark down your attendance, and what field you want to advance in as your meister on this form." Yukio said, as ha handed his classmates a form which they were supposed to fill with said information. When it was handed to her, Aura didn't mark nor did she write anything on it; instead, she just stared at it in shock. "You have until monday to hand it in."

Once again, the whole matter about exorcism and meister was brought into her mind. If she actually ended up deciding she did want to become an exorcist, then what meister was she going to pick? She couldn't really think of anything that suit her. _"Doctor?"_ She doubted it. She didn't really imagine herself healing other exorcist fellows, especially being that she wasn't exactly cooperative. _"Aria?"_ She discarded it right away. Bible verses could kill her, so chanting them herself would be pretty much suicidal. _"Tamer?"_ Discarded. She didn't like the idea of forcing a demon to do things for her. She was pretty sure she had no talent to summon demons anyway. _"Dragoon? Knight...?"_ Those were the only ones left, and much to her misfortune, they didn't fit her either. She wasn't carrying any guns or swords; moreover, she had no experience using them. _"... I'm no good, huh?"_

**.**

**.**

**.**

As soon as the anti-demon pharmacology class finished, the bell rang, indicating the start of the magic circles class.

Right at that moment, Neuhaus, the teacher in charge of the class, was drawing a large magic circle on the classroom's floor, which, apparently, was going to be used to summon a demon. Aura just stared at the magic circle drawn with chalk, wondering what kind of demon was going to come out from it and how it would behave. She found it strange, the fact demons could be tamed by humans. Why did demons have to obey humans in the first place? She didn't understand it, and thought it was rather unfair.

"Now I will summon a demon," Neuhaus announced, as he set aside the big compass he had used to draw. Rin, completely impressed due to how detailed the magic circle was drawn, made a step ahead to have a better look of it **–** although he got scolded right away for doing so. "Don't step on the drawing! If the magic circle is broken, it loses its effect," Neuhaus said, "You need blood and the appropriate chant to summon a demon." As he spoke, he revealed his bandaged right hand, in which he had an open, blood-dripping wound. He then let a few drops of his blood fall on the drawing, and he then chanted, "Son of Typhoeus and Echidna, heed my call!" Soon after, a heavy mist began to ooze out from the magic circle, and a creature started to emerge from it.

The exorcist apprentices couldn't help but gasp at the beast standing in front of them. It had the form of a dog, yet the putrid appearance of a corpse.

"Is that a Naberius...?" Suguro said, as he stared wide-eyed at the beast. "It's the first time I've seen one..."

_"A Naberius..."_ Aura thought, her eyes shining at the corpse-like demon._ "... Awesome."_

Shima, rather than surprise or amazement, showed disgust. "It stinks of sulphur!" He said, as he covered his nose with his sleeve.

"There are very few people who can summon demons and use them as familiar. Sheer spiritual fortitude is needed to tame demons, but natural talent is also essential." Neuhaus then made a pause and glanced at Rin, who looked at him back with curiosity.

Aura, who was completely distracted as she was enchanted with the naberius, noticed by chance that Neuhaus was looking at Rin, and she instantly sensed a strange feeling emanating from the teacher's gaze. Despise? Anger? Contempt? Hatred? It was a mixture of all of them. _"Neuhaus-sensei... hates Rin?"_ She thought, completely in shock. _"Why?"  
_

Neuhaus suddenly felt a heavy gaze on him, and when he looked up to see from whom said gaze belonged, he realised that the one who was looking, or rather, glaring at him was his newest student, Shimizu Aura. He didn't give it much importance; he simply decided to ignore the white-haired girl's surly eyes, and just went on with the lesson. "I'll be testing you now to see if you have this talent. Put a drop of your blood on the paper with the magic circle I gave you earlier and say the words that come to your mind."

Unlike the rest of the class, Aura wasn't really interested in seeing whether or not she was capable of becoming a tamer. In all honesty, she couldn't care less. She was curious as to which one of her classmates was talented enough to summon demons, though, so she let her grayish blue eyes wander over the whole classroom. Much to her surprise, only two girls in particular caught her eye. _"Kamiki-san has the talent,"_ she thought, recognizing the girl's skills right away. _"Takara-san and Moriyama-san too... I think."_

Just like Aura predicted, the first one to show her skills as a tamer was the dark purple-haired girl. After pinching one of her fingers with a needle and letting a few drops of her blood fall on two of the papers, she chanted, "I humbly call upon the Gods of Harvest. Follow my wishes, leave none unfilled!" An instant later, the magic circles sketched on both papers started to shine, and soon after, two fox-like creatures appeared and landed right in front of her.

"Holy crap! What's that?" Rin exclaimed, completely amazed. "So cool!"

"Two spirit foxes at once," Neuhaus said at the sight of the two byakko demons. "Splendid, Kamiki Izumo."

"Amazing, Izumo-chan!" Paku said, praising her best friend. "I can't do it..."

"It's just natural," Izumo responded with an obvious air of arrogance, "I'm the descendant of a shrine maiden, after all!"

"Being related to a shrine maiden is not that special..." Aura mumbled, completely by impulse **–** and even though she had spoken in such a low tone of voice, she was heard.

"...Huh? What did you say?" Izumo said, as she furrowed her oval-shaped eyebrows at the white-haired girl's comment. Her annoyance then turned into amusement, and while wearing a mocking smirk across her face, she added, "No needs to be jealous just because you don't have any talent. Not everyone can be special, after all."

Aura didn't say anything in return, perhaps because the dark purple-haired girl's words didn't reach her in the slightest. Instead of getting angry and yelling something at the pig-tailed girl, she jerked her head to look at a certain blonde girl and said, "You should try to summon a demon too, Moriyama-san."

"Huh? Me?" Shiemi blinked her bright green eyes in confusion at the white-haired girl's words. "N**–**no... I don't think I can..."

"I'm sure you can," Aura said, as she looked at Izumo out of the corner of her eye. "Besides, who knows? Maybe you can do even better than Kamiki-san."

Just as expected, Aura's comment had an instant effect on Izumo. The latter was angry to the point she was cringing her teeth, but even before she could yell something at the former, Shiemi cut her off by saying, "A**–**alright! I'll try to do it!" With that said, she held the paper with hope, and then spoke the first thing that came to her mind, "Come out, come out~... Just kidding." Nothing happened, and the room quickly got filled with a deep, awkward silence.

Izumo couldn't help but scoff. "Like I said, not everyone can**—**"

Suddenly, the magic circle sketched on the blonde girl's paper started to glow, and soon after, a small, green creature popped out from it.

"It looks like a Green Man spirit," Neuhaus said, as he studied the green demon that had landed on Shiemi's paper. "How wonderful, Moriyama Shiemi."

"H**–**hello..." Shiemi shyly greeted the Green Man, which jumped up to her blonde hair and started to climb it. "I**–**it tickles!" Shiemi couldn't believe she had been able to summon a familiar; after all, she didn't think think she was a talented person like a certain skilled, dark purple-haired girl. _"Ah! Now's my chance to talk to Kamiki-san!"_ She thought, as she looked up and her lively green eyes met with Izumo's deep red ones. "K... Kamiki-san... I... I also could summon a familiar!"

"... Good for you," Izumo replied, sarcasm overflowing her voice. "It's surprisingly tiny, and cute just like a speck."

_"C... cute?!"_ Being that Shiemi was completely pure-hearted, she couldn't read between the lines and took the tamer girl's words as sincere praises. "Th... thank you!"

_"... Seriously?"_ Aura thought, as a tired sigh escaped her lips. She couldn't believe it; how innocent the blonde girl was.

"There seems to be a bumper crop of tamer prospects this year," Neuhaus started, yet stopped speaking as soon as he realised that a certain white-haired girl had yet to test out her talent as a tamer. "Shimizu," he called her out, and the alluded girl looked up at him with wary eyes. "Aren't you going to try to summon a demon?"

"... No. I don't like the idea of forcing a demon to do things for me, Neuhaus-sensei," Aura responded, "I'd rather... kill my enemies with my own hands."

In a way, Neuhaus felt those words were specifically directed at him. She was just one of his students, yet her tone of voice was so cold and sharp to the point it was threatening. _"Could it be...? Did she figure out?"_ Neuhaus thought, as he eyed the white-haired girl with suspicious eyes._ "No... It's impossible,"_ was his final conclusion. There was no way a young, clueless girl like her could be so smart to realise what his true intentions were **–** and even if she did figure out, she still was no threat for him. He could simply kill her, after all. "I see. You can keep the paper in case you happen to change your mind, though."

"... Okay," Aura replied, her grayish blue eyes still glued on her teacher. _"... Neuhaus-sensei is planning something. I'm sure of it."_

"... What a lame excuse," Izumo commented under her breath, yet loud enough for the white-haired girl to hear it.

"I**–**Izumo-chan..." Paku mumbled nervously, as an attempt to stop her friend from starting an argument.

"I'm not making up excuses, Kamiki-san." Aura suddenly replied, "I'm just not interested in becoming a tamer. After all, unlike you, I don't need to rely on a demon to fight."

At that point, Izumo couldn't stand it anymore. She was about to yell something at the white-haired girl, but suddenly, she felt that someone lightly pulled at her shirt. She jerked her head at her side to see her best friend, Paku, who shook her head as a way of telling her that insulting the white-haired girl wasn't a good idea. The dark purple-haired girl hesitated, but in the end, she swallowed both her pride and her words, and let out a snort, which earned her a happy smile from her brunette friend. Aura, on her part, observed the two girls with curious eyes, perhaps because she didn't understand friendship.

As soon as he saw the opportunity, Neuhaus cleared his throat and caught the attention of his students. "Looks like we have plenty of tamer candidates this year." He said, referring to both Shiemi and Izumo. "Tamers who can fight using summoned demons are rare and highly valued amongst exorcists. Demons never obey someone weaker than themselves; on the contrary, they attack those who have lost their confidence." He made a pause, and then added, "As I told you earlier, if the magic circle is broken, the bond will break and the summon will dissapear, so if you feel in danger, just tear the paper." That said, he rubbed one of his feet on the magic circle that was drawn on the floor and erased part of it, causing the Naberius he had summoned to dissapear right away. "Today's class is over."

Aura followed Neuhaus with her gaze as he walked away, innerly wondering many things about him **–** such as to what his true intentions were. Her teacher's plans weren't clear to her, but if there was something she was certain of, was that he held some sort of grudge against Rin; she could tell by the hatred and despise that would take place on his gaze whenever he glanced at the half-demon boy. Another thing she was sure of was that Neuhaus was planning to harm Rin, and she knew that whatever he was planning to do, he was going to do it soon.

_"Why... am I thinking about all this?" _Aura thought, as she unconsciously wore a frustrated frown across her face._ "This isn't my business, is it?"_

The white-haired girl was deeply immersed on her thoughts, hence she didn't realise there were a pair of electric blue orbs glued on her. The half-demon boy who happened to be the owner of said orbs had been staring at her for a while now, not only because he kind of liked to look at her, but because he was concerned about her. He couldn't help it; her usually calm facial expression was now one of frustration, after all.

Rin wanted to know what was going on inside the half-demon girl's head, but for some reason, he was too nervous to speak to her. In the end, though, his curiosity ended up winning against his fluster.

"Oi," Aura totally lost her trail of thought when she heard Rin's voice. Slowly, she jerked her head to see that the half-demon boy was looking at her with a mixture of embarrassment and confusion on his face. "Y... you okay?" He asked shyly as he glanced away, failing to make direct eye contact with her. He received no answer, so out of curiosity, he lifted up his gaze and finally dared to look straight to her eyes. That was when he chuckled **–** something that took her off guard. "What's with that weird face?" He asked, grinning amusedly at the white-haired girl's shocked expression. "It's creepy!"

Her heart started to ache all of sudden, and she assumed it was because of guilt. After all, even though it had been only for a second, she considered the idea of leaving him alone when he was in danger.

_"... I'm sorry, Rin."_ Aura thought, yet didn't dare to say out of loud.

The truth was, she didn't know much about him. She wasn't exactly close to him, nor has she known him for a long time. She didn't even know whether or not he considered her as a friend. Even so, despite all this, she still treasured Rin. She was growing to like him, and she wished that someday, he would grow to like her too._  
_

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**A/N: GOD. WHY AM I SUCH A SLOW WRITER. I HATE THAT ABOUT MYSELF. UGHHH /punches herself in the face.  
**

**Well... Thank you a bunch for reading this lame story guys! /hugs you eternally.  
**


	9. Study Session

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

Everyone had been extremely busy lately **–** or at least, to Rin, it did seem like that.

Due to the upcoming training camp, Yukio had been spending a lot of his time preparing classes and exams for his students at the cram school, whereas Suguro, Konekomaru and **–** oddly enough **– **Shima had been devoting more time to their studies. Shiemi, on her part, had been pretty busy as well, although not because of her studies, but because she had been following Izumo around and constantly running errands for her ever since the day they both summoned familiars at the magic circles class.

_"... Guess I should be studying too," _Rin thought to himself, hoping his already poor grades wouldn't get any worse. Not that he was particularly interested in having good grades; he just didn't want Yukio to sermon him about how he should spend more time studying and less time slacking.

As soon as the bell rang, indicating the end of the classes and the start of lunch time, he grabbed his bag, stood up from his seat and walked outside the classroom. He walked through the academy's long halls with the courtyard as his destination point, although when he noticed the cloudy weather out of one of the many windows, he chose not to follow his usual routine of having lunch outside. Instead, he made his way to the academy's cafeteria as quickly as he could, but much to his misfortune, it was just like always **–** noisy and crowded.

_"... Damn it."_ Rin assumed there were no seats left, and thus turned on his heels to head outside; however, he stopped on his tracks as soon as his eye caught a certain white-haired girl at the distance. She was having lunch **–** a few small sandwiches that were the cheapest dish on the academy's expensive menu **–** while busily reading a book despite the loud voices filling the whole cafeteria. Also, whereas the other tables were completely full with students, she was sitting in an empty one, and seemed not to mind the fact she was alone.

Certainly, Aura wasn't the brightest crayon in the box when it came to socialize.

_"Holy water is water that has been sanctified by a religious figure. It's used for either protection against evil, several religious celebrations as baptism or for the blessing of persons, places and objects,"_ Aura read to herself, not paying attention to her surroundings, and thus not realising that someone was approaching her. _"Holy water works as a repellent for evil, but if used along with chants or amulets, it has the power of vanishing demons, dispel their deceits and—"_

"You sure like studying," A voice suddenly broke her concentration, and she looked up to see it was none else than Rin.

"... I guess I do," she said, as her grayish blue eyes returned to the textbook.

Innerly, Aura wasn't sure whether or not she liked studying. Of course, she cared about her grades and wanted them to be acceptable, but actually, her marks weren't the reason as to why she had been spending so much time studying the last few days. In truth, it was her way to distract herself and ignore her concern about a certain half-demon boy **–** the same one that had taken a seat next to her and was now trying to peek at what she was reading without getting too close to her.

_"When is Neuhaus-sensei going to attack...?"_ That question and some similar others had been floating on her mind ever since the teacher's last class, and no matter how much she tried to forget about it, she seemed not to be able to drive them out of her mind. _"He wouldn't attack Rin personally... He's likely going to send one of his familiars,"_ she thought, trying to decode the teacher's intentions. _"Rin is half-demon; he probably can win against any demon Neuhaus-sensei might send after him, but..." _Suddenly, a hypothesis occurred to her. _"Rin is hiding his lineage from everyone, so he would be unable to fight if he were in front of other people. Neuhaus-sensei must be waiting for a situation like that..."_ And so, she finally reached a conclusion. _"... The training camp?"_

The week-long training camp was just a few days away, and the half-demon girl's assumption was that Neuhaus would send his familiar during it given that Rin would be around his classmates, and thus he wouldn't fight with all his power in order not to reveal his demon lineage. Moreover, she was pretty sure they would have to deal with demons during the training camp; therefore, if her assumptions were right and the teacher's familiar happened to show up during the training camp, it would rather pass as a part of the training camp than as a planned attack specifically towards Rin.

_"I... don't know anymore,"_ she thought in exhaustion, as she sighed and grabbed the bridge of her nose.

Aura didn't realise it as she was submerged in her thoughts, but the deep silence she unconsciously had created was crushing Rin.

"Umm," he tried to start, yet he had no ideas to begin a conversation. That is, until he remembered she was reading something. "What are you reading?"

"Eh?" was all Aura managed to say, as her thoughts had been interrupted too abruptly. Once she registered what the half-demon boy had said, she finally replied, "Ah, it's what we covered last week on the holy scriptures class. We're having a test about it after the training camp, so..."

"What?" was all Rin said, his electric blue eyes completely wide.

A frown took over the half-demon girl's face. "You... knew about it, didn't you?"

Rin's response was an awkward chuckle, which Aura took as a _"No, I had no idea."_

After she let out a sigh at the dark-haired boy's lack of responsability, she said, "... I can help you to study."

Rin blinked, and once he registered and processed what he just had heard, a grin spreaded on his face. "C... could you repeat that?"

Aura lifted up an eyebrow, truly confused as to why he looked so excited. "... I can help you to stu—"

Even before she could finish the sentence, Rin suddenly grabbed her shoulders and looked right at her, his wide eyes sparkling with joy. "R... really?! You mean it?!" He asked, unable to believe that the white-haired girl was actually showing him a nice side of her. She rarely was kind, let alone friendly, and thus, for some reason, he was glad a cold person like her was willing to help him. Those feelings of bliss vanished away once he realised he was invading her personal space, though. A pinkish blush was visible on her face, and she seemed a bit uncomfortable as his face was a bit too close to her liking. "S... sorry," he said, as he released her shoulders and innerly hoped she hadn't change her mind about studying together, "I mean, huh..."

"It's alright," Aura said, and glanced away as an attempt to hide the fact she was slightly flustered. "I don't mind helping you, really." That said, she grabbed her textbook and stood up from her seat. "Today, at six, in your room! Got it?" Rin just stared at her, his response at her words being only a nod. "... Okay then, see you later!" She then ran a few steps but stopped. Bashfully, she turned around to look at him and asked, "I... in which room are you again?"

**.**

**.**

**.**

_"7:23, huh..."_ Rin thought, as he tiredly stared at his cellphone.

Right at that moment, he was alone; his younger brother, Yukio, was out in a mission, and Aura, who had promised to meet up with him at six, hadn't show up despite it was already half past seven in the evening. For an instant, he considered going to look for her within the dorm, but the idea got scrapped when he started to hear knocks. Instantly, he opened the door and was ready to yell at her for delaying a hour and a half, but instead, he remained quiet and stared at her.

"Sorry for making you wait," Aura said, not realising the half-demon boy's electric blue eyes were studying her.

She was wearing a long hoodie that looked baggy on her, but even so, her curves were still obvious underneath. Also, he couldn't help but notice the fact her legs looked pretty long, but that was probably because she wasn't wearing anything to cover them. As the white-haired girl stared at him with a confused expression across her face, his sapphire blue eyes kept on wandering over her figure, thinking about how much he would like to squeeze certain parts of her now hidden body.

"Rin?" Aura's voice suddenly rang on his ears, "Are you okay?" Rin heard what she had asked him, although he didn't really register it as he was too busy staring at her lips as she spoke. He didn't realise it before, but the half-demon girl's lips were pinkish and full, and even though he had never felt them before, he imagined they were also soft and warm. As he was thinking about things that weren't exactly pure, the white-haired girl approached him. "You look sick," she said, as she placed her hand on his forehead.

Rin jumped as soon as her hand touched him, especially because it felt extremely cold against his warm skin. His heart suddenly started to race a mile a minute at the fact she was touching him with her soft hand, and he could feel sweat running down all over his body. He felt hot and feverish, and he could tell that what was causing his temperature to rise up wasn't exactly fever.

Rin swallowed hard. "D... don't worry," he stuttered, "I'm alright." He couldn't see himself, but he was pretty sure his cheeks were colored a dark shade of red.

Aura raised an eyebrow in disbelief, yet chose not to bug him with questions. "Okay then, wanna start?"

"Wait, wait! T... there's something I need to do first," Rin said awkwardly, as he stood up from where he was sitting and made his way towards the room's exit. "W**–**wait here, okay?"

Aura blinked. "... Okay," she said, and an instant later Rin ran away from there.

_"J... just what the hell am I thinking?"_ Rin thought, as he headed towards the dorm's bathroom, planning to take a cold shower.

_"What's with him...?"_ Aura thought, as she stared off at the door. She then let her grayish blue eyes wander around the room, finally realising the fact she wasn't only in Rin's room, but also in Yukio's. One side of the room was tidy and neat; the bed was made, and the books and notes that were on the desk were in perfect order. The other side, on the other hand, was the complete opposite as it was messed up. It was pretty easy to tell which side of the room was whose.

As she was scanning the whole room, a certain object tossed on the floor caught her attention; the sword Rin was always carrying around on his back. That's when she realised she had never seen him fight before, and she couldn't help but feel curious about what kind of blade it was. The idea of sliding of the red cloth and taking out the sword crossed her mind for a second, but in the end, she decided to swallow up her curiosity and respect the boy's space.

The sword was driven out of her mind as soon as she heard the sound of the door opening, and when she turned around, she saw the person entering the room wasn't Rin, but his younger twin brother. "Shimizu-san?" He said, quite surprised as the white-haired girl was the last person he was expecting to see in his and his brother's room.

"A**–**ah, Y**–**Yukio-kun... S... sorry for intruding," Aura said, sounding strangely flustered. "I... it's just Rin and I are going to study together, so... huh..."

"Really?" Yukio asked, genuinely surprised. Even though he could tell the white-haired girl's words were sincere, he was pretty sure there was more to it than just studying **–** or at least on Rin's part. After all, the fact the half-demon boy suddenly started to care about his grades sounded a bit fishy, and he must have had his reasons to have agreed on spending his time studying instead than sleeping or slacking off like he usually does. "It's nice to hear that Nii-san finally wants to study," he said, with that usual gentle smile of his. "Please be patient with him; he can be really thick-headed at times."

"... I will," was all Aura said, not really feeling encouraged by Yukio's words. Quite by chance, she noticed that the glassed boy's clothes were a bit neglected, and since he was wearing the exorcist coat he usually wore during his cram school lessons, she assumed he had just returned from a mission._ "Yukio-kun is awesome..."_ There was no doubt he was; he was smart, talented, had perfect grades and despite the fact he was only fifteen years old, he was already a full licensed exorcist. Somehow, Yukio kind of reminded her of many members of her family, but unlike the latter, he was actually a kind person. "I... really admire you, Yukio-kun." Aura thought aloud, and her comment caught the young exorcist off guard.

Yukio could see where she was coming from, but still, he couldn't share her opinion. After all, he thought his older twin brother, was superior than him in many ways. "That really flatters me," he said, as he smiled in gratitude, "But I don't think there's much to admire about me—"

"Don't say that!" Aura suddenly snapped, but when she noticed the shocked facial expression Yukio was wearing across his face, she put her emotions aside and added, "Don't... put yourself down like that. I've known a lot of talented exorcists, and you're... definitely one of the best ones, really."

At first, Yukio didn't understand why Aura had reacted in such a way, but everything started to make sense when he remembered a conversation he had had with the principal of the academy some time ago **–** or, more precisely, a few days before the white-haired girl started attending both the academy and the cram school.

_"A new student?" Yukio asked, truly surprised at the dark purple-haired demon's sudden announcement._

_"Yes," Mephisto replied, his forest green eyes still glued on the videogame console he was playing with, "Like I mentioned earlier, she's a half-demon breed like you and Okumura Rin-kun. Her heritage isn't something to worry about, though; hers is not near as powerful as yours, after all," he then made a pause, put the pink console aside, turned to look at the young teacher and continued with his speech, "Your soon-to-be new student, Shimizu Aura, is a very rare kind of succubus. She's still a virgin, and yet she hasn't starved to death. Isn't that extraordinary~?"_

_"Shimizu...?" Yukio was sure he had heard that surname several times already. He searched within his mind for a while, and it didn't take him much time to remember why that surname sounded so familiar to him. "Aren't the Shimizu a wealthy, well-known family that specializes in exorcism?" he asked, pretty sure of the fact that some of the exorcists he had worked with had 'Shimizu' as their surname._

_"Indeed, they are; many of them are working under the True Cross Order even at this precise moment. This girl, however, has never been considered as a member of the family due to her demonic lineage, and unlike the rest of her family, holds no interest in being an exorcist," Mephisto explained, and then added, "I think she will eventually change her mind, though... and if she happens to enroll cram school, I want you to keep an eye on her. After all, despite her innocent appearance, she's still a demon.. and who knows when her true nature will awake~?"_

Yukio assumed the white-haired girl had had countless hard times during her childhood, and just when he was about to tell her a few encouraging words, a certain half-demon boy burst into the room.

"I'm back!" Rin announced as he panted, which implied he had ran as fast as he could. "Sorry for making you wa—" He didn't finish what he was saying, probably because he noticed Yukio's presence on the room. The half-demon boy looked at his younger brother in confusion and wondered when he had returned from his mission, but he instantly forgot about it once he noticed something strange on the white-haired girl. _"She's... troubled?"_ It was the very first time Rin saw her making such a face. Naturally, it shocked him; Aura would always look serious and stoic around him, but whenever she was around Yukio, she would look flustered, or even concerned. Why could Yukio get emotions out of her when he couldn't? Inevitably, it pissed Rin off.

"Nii-san?" Yukio pronounced in confusion, as he observed how his older brother grabbed the white-haired girl's hand, dragged her out of the room and shut the door behind them.

"W... why did you do that?" Aura asked, shock present in her voice.

"I... huh..." Rin made a pause, and continued as soon as he came up with an excuse, "I won't be able to focus if Yukio's there, so... let's go to your room!"

Aura's grayish blue eyes widened. "To... my room?"

And so, much to his surprise, she agreed **–** although if he had known that going to her room would lead to a night-long study session, he wouldn't have even suggested it.

**.**

**.**

**.**

The following day, Rin witnessed quite a weird scene when he stepped inside the classroom in which cram school classes are always held; Aura was sleeping with her head plastered on the desk, whereas Suguro, Shima and Konekomaru seemed to be either trying to wake her up or checking whether she was alive or not. Once the Kyoto trio noticed that Rin was making his way towards them, they all lifted up their gazes to see he looked extremely exhausted.

Shima couldn't help but grin at the somewhat suspicious situation. "Heh... Seems like Aura-chan and Okumura-kun had an interesting night yesterday~"

"... Not really," Rin said, his tone of voice sounding both tired and dissapointed. "We studied all night long..." He yawned, and then added, "I think I learned everything we covered in cram school in one night."

"Wha... Seriously?!" Suguro almost yelled, as he stared in shock at the white-haired that was sitting asleep next to him. "Shimizu sure is awesome... Teaching stuff to you must've been a pain."

Rin glared daggers at the boy with the blonde streak across his hair. "W... what the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Aura, despite the loud yelling around her, simply ignored all the noise and kept sleeping soundly.

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**A/N: Oh my god, when was the last time I updated? /shot.  
**

**Thank you so much for letting this story reach +50 reviews! I've said it many times, and I'll never stop saying it; you guys are AMAZING. Seriously, thank you for everything! /hugs. Well... this chapter is kinda fillerish, but I'll try to update asap! /dodges bricks.  
**


	10. call ME

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

After many days of anxiety, the day of the week-long training camp finally had come, and surprisingly enough, it was going to be carried out at nowhere else but at the old, male dormitory. There were many good reasons for the camp session to be carried out there, one of them being that the dormitory was almost empty – almost, since despite the fact it was abandoned, there were three people staying there. The said three people were now outside of the old dormitory, waiting for the rest of the group of exorcist trainees to arrive for the training camp.

_"... Today's the day. Today... Neuhaus-sensei will attack Rin,"_ Aura thought, practically absorved by the anxiety, _"Today I'll—"_

"Oi... Shiemi's totally become her bitch," Rin commented, his annoyed voice suddenly interrupting the white-haired girl's trail of thought.

Aura cocked her eyebrows in confusion, but the boy's comment started to make sense as soon as she grasped what he meant. During the past week, the blonde girl who always wore kimonos had been tailing a certain pig-tailed girl around, and even though it was obvious the intentions of the latter had nothing to do with friendship, the former seemed to be oblivious about it. In all honestly, the white-haired girl couldn't care less about other people's business, but even so, she decided to express her opinion anyway, "Well... it's Moriyama-san's fault."

As soon as that comment escaped the half-demon girl's lips, Rin looked up at her with confusion. "What do you mean?" he asked, "There's no way it's Shiemi's—"

"It _is_ Moriyama-san's fault," Aura cut him off, emphasizing her words. "She's smart enough to realise that Kamiki-san doesn't like her, isn't she?" she spoke, and the half-demon boy that was sitting next to her just looked at her with wide, electric blue eyes, probably because her lack of empathy shocked him. "It's all Moriyama-san's fault for letting herself be bossed around."

An annoyed frown took over the half-demon boy's face. "You don't need to be so cold, you know?"

"Cold?" Aura cocked an eyebrow at the dark-haired boy's words. "I'm just stating the facts. Besides, aren't you friends with Moriyama-san?" she said, and then added, "If you do realise that Kamiki-san is just using her, then why don't you tell Moriyama-san about it? Doesn't ignoring it make you an even worse person than Kamiki-san?"

Rin didn't say anything, probably because her crude words had caught him off guard. _"H... how the hell can she be so cold?"_ he wondered, feeling as though all the liking he had taken to her had suddenly vanished away. That was when he realised those were her true colors. She was pretty on the outside, yet she was dry, cold and crude on the inside. Rin opened his mouth with the intention of telling her something, but in the end, he didn't say anything; he just remained silent and looked away from her, probably because he realised that there was no point in bothering with someone as apathetic as her.

"Rin?" Aura mumbled, as she tilted her head in confusion. _"Is he mad?"_ she wondered, having problems to read his facial expression.

"Good morning," Yukio suddenly said, causing the white-haired girl's attention to immediately go from Rin to the students who had just arrived.

Shima was the only one who greeted back; the rest of the group, on the other hand, was too busy staring in shock at the dormitory.

"... What's this?" Suguro asked, his eyes glued on the huge building ahead. "It looks like a haunted hotel."

"I don't like it. It feels creepy," Izumo said, as she eyed the place with disgust. "Couldn't we go somewhere nicer?" she asked, and the next thing she did was handing her red bag to Shiemi.

As soon as she noticed what her purple-haired friend was doing, Paku turned to look at Shiemi with concerned eyes. "M... Moriyama-san... if you don't tell her that you mind..."

"Huh? But I don't mind," Shiemi replied while wearing a bright, cheerful smile across her face, "I'm helping a friend!"

"Wow... Moriyama-san sure is dumb. No wonder Kamiki-san is taking advantage of her so easily," Aura muttered quietly, which earned her a smack on the back of her head. "W... what was that for?!" she questioned, as she turned to glare at the half-demon boy that was next to her. "Rin!" He simply ignored her, stoop up from where he was sitting and headed inside the dorm along with the rest of his classmates. Aura, on her part, just stared at him in shock. _"W... what's gotten into him all of sudden...?"_

**.**

**.**

**.**

Besides the sound of the pens scratching across the paper, absolutely no sounds could be heard on the room. The exorcist trainees were fully focused on the test they were having, although this concentration was broken when the anti-demon pharmacology teacher decided to put an end to the silence. "Alright, time's up," Yukio spoke after checking his watch, "Please flip your worksheets and pass them around. That's enough for today." After such announcement, all the students instantly relaxed their positions. "Tomorrow we're waking up at six. We'll have a short quiz covered by this test."

After Rin had handed out his worksheet, he shakily stood up from where he was sitting and tiredly said, "I'm just gonna go... get some air..."

Aura came back to reality as soon as she realised he was leaving the room. _"... Rin can't go alone,"_ she thought, _"If he goes alone, he'll probably be attacked."_

"Yeah, go cool down..." Suguro said, as he stared at the half-demon boy. He could swear he could see smoke coming off Rin's head for thinking so much.

"Rin!" Aura suddenly called out, and the alluded one – along with everyone else – turned to look at her in confusion.

"What?" Rin asked, with a slight hint of annoyance on his voice, which surprisingly enough, made the white-haired girl uneasy.

_"... He's mad, isn't he?"_ Aura thought, wondering if it was her fault. "N... nevermind," she said awkwardly, as she noticed the tense atmosphere she accidentally had created. She then stood up from where she was sitting, and in order to avoid her classmates heavy gazes, she rushed outside the room without pronouncing a word. _"I have to relax,"_ she told herself, realising the stress of the situation was starting to affect her. _"Maybe I should take a bath or something..."_

**.**

**.**

**.**

Much to her luck, she had the whole bathroom for herself, hence she didn't have to pass through the uncomfortable situation of undressing in front of other girls. The fact she was shy about that matter wasn't the only problem; she also had a tail growing out of her behind that was a proof of her non-human heritage, and even though she personally didn't care if her classmates found out about it, the principal of the academy had specifically told her to keep it a secret – and undoubtedly, she didn't want to have any problems with him.

Her sweater, her bow, her shirt, her skirt, her shoes, her tights, her bra – she had gotten rid of almost everything she had on, and just when she was about to take off the last piece of her clothes—

"It's... the first time I've ever had a bath with my friends," the excited voice of a certain blonde girl suddenly rang in the white-haired girl's ears.

"Sorry, but can you wait outside for us?" Aura heard Izumo's voice outside the bathroom, and after Shiemi pronounced an innocent, "Why?", the pig-tailed girl instantly responded, "Because I don't want you to see me naked. You should be able to understand that since we're friends. Ah, but I don't want to make you wait like that, so go and get me some fruit milk. If the baths are hot I'll probably want something to drink." Aura then heard the sound of the room's door closing, signifying Izumo and her friend Paku were now inside the bathroom as well.

Luckily enough, Izumo and Paku didn't notice her presence; Aura was using the shelf behind the one the two girls chose to use, and thus she easily passed unnoticed. Still, the half-demon girl didn't want to risk her secret, hence she wrapped her tail around her waist, grabbed the shirt she had just taken off and slipped it on. _"I guess I'll have to wait until Kamiki-san and Paku-san finish,"_ she thought, as she silently sat on the floor.

Izumo was the first one to break the silence, "I'm relieved the bathroom is clean. I mean, the entire place looks like a ghost hotel."

A short silence followed, until Paku finally decided to speak, "Izumo-chan... Weren't you mean to that girl?"

And so, a long conversation followed; a conversation about friendship and other issues. Honestly, the white-haired girl wasn't intrigued by what her two classmates had to say, but even so, she inevitably ended up hearing their whole talk and learning a few unexpected things – such as that the pig-tailed, purple-haired girl actually had a sweet side, and also that the short-haired girl was planning to quit cram school.

_"So Paku-san is going to quit cram school..."_ Aura thought, surprised by what she had heard. _"Maybe... I should quit as well. After all, I—__"_ Suddenly, her thoughts were cut off by a strong smell. _"Rotten flesh...?"_ she thought, and her grayish blue eyes shot open when she figured out the source of the smell. _"A naberius?!"_ Aura quickly started to scan the whole room with her eyes in search for the demon, when she heard a growl coming from above. She looked up at the ceiling, and suppressed a scream when she finally found what she was looking for.

Izumo and Paku screamed in horror when they noticed the demon's presence in the room, and it didn't take long until it jumped and attacked them. "Paku!" the purple-haired girl yelled at her now unconscious friend, who was lying on the floor underneath the naberius. _"It's a ghoul demon...! If I don't treat that mashou immediately..."_

"Kamiki-san!" As soon as Izumo heard her name being pronounced, she turned around to see her white-haired classmate rushing towards her.

"Y... you?!" she yelled, as she stared in a shock at the white-haired girl, who was now standing in front of her. "Since when are you—"

"I'll distract it!" Aura cut her off, "You summon your familiars and attack it when you have the chance!"

Izumo blinked her wide, crimson red eyes, and then nodded in agreement.

Aura focused all her attention on the naberius, and proceeded to analyze the situation in which she was in._ "Paku-san is unconscious, and I don't know how strong Kamiki-san's familiars are. I myself am not of any use; I don't have any weapons, nor do I know any verses that could work against the naberius. We are... at a total disadvantage here,"_ she thought, as she warily observed the demon standing ahead. _"This demon... Neuhaus-sensei must have sent it. That means its target isn't Kamiki-san, Paku-san or me. It's Rin."_ Aura then took a deep breath and prepared herself to fight the demon despite her non-existent chances of defeating it. _"There's no way I could defeat it... but at least I'll drive it away before it finds Rin."_ With that on mind, she ran ahead, fist raised and ready to strike_.  
_

Izumo's eyes widened at what she was seeing. _"She's going to attack it directly...? Is she insane?!"_

Aura's plan was simple; she'd hit the demon in order to catch its attention. Demons like the naberius she was about to attack weren't exactly agile, hence she assumed dodging its attacks would be rather easy. She was highly mistaken, though. The half-demon girl aimed her punch straight into the demon's second head, but shockingly enough, it managed to catch her hand in its mouth and bit her. Aura cringed in pain at the demon's hard bite; she could feel its teeth sinking into her flesh, and its acidic saliva burning her skin. As she tried to free her hand from the naberius' mouth, the same acid that was burning her hand got spilled all over her legs and belly, causing her to lose strength and fall to her knees. That was when the naberius took the opportunity to finish her; it finally released her hand, only to grab her by her wrist and throw her towards the lockers of the bathroom.

Izumo started to panic when she realised the white-haired girl had been completely defeated._ "I'm... the only one that can save them!"_ she innerly told herself as she pulled two papers out of her bag and wiped blood on them. "I humbly call upon the Gods of Harvest. Follow my wishes, leave none unfulfilled!" she chanted, and in a puff of smoke, her fox-like familiars appeared and landed right in front of her. The naberius suddenly let out an aggressive growl which made her flinch and take a step back, and when her two familiars sensed her fear, they turned to look at her.

_"Woman, what is the state of thy heart?"_ one of her familiars spoke with indignation, and an instant later, the two of them attacked._ "We shall not follow you, woman!"_

Even before they could harm the pig-tailed girl, a certain dark-haired boy showed up and struck them away from them. "Tear the paper!" he yelled, "The paper!" When Izumo registered what the boy had said, she quickly tore the papers in pieces, causing her familiars to vanish away.

_"Rin...?"_ Aura thought, slowly regaining consciousness.

_"Shit... what now? I—"_ Rin's thoughts were cut off when he felt a light pull on his sleeve, and when he turned to see who it was, he saw it was the white-haired, half-demon girl. She was in a very poor condition; she had several wounds on her legs, arms and hands, and the shirt she was wearing was burnt at some places. "You..."

"D... don't worry about me. I'm fine," Aura said weakly between pants, "Be careful. It's faster than it looks... and the liquid dripping from its mouth is pretty much acid."

Rin nodded, and turned his attention back to the naberius. _"Well... what am I gonna do? I can't draw my sword..."_ he thought,_ "Come quickly, Yukio!"_

"Rin!" As soon as his name was pronounced, the alluded one quickly jerked his head to look behind him, and saw Shiemi coming inside the bathroom. "Paku-san! Shimizu-san!" she yelled with concern when she spotted the two girls at the distance. "Rin! While I treat Paku-san and Shimizu-san... go distract the demon!" With that said, she ran towards the two girls, showing no fear despite the, scary creature that was ahead. The demon was about to attack the blonde girl, but even before it could hurt her, Rin protected her by hitting the demon with the red bag he always carried on his back.

_"W... what is he doing?"_ Aura thought in shock, as she stared at the way the half-demon boy was fighting. "Rin! Use your sword already, you idiot!"

_"You think I haven't thought of that?!"_ Rin thought in annoyance, as he kept fighting the naberius without taking his sword out of its red bag.

Naturally, since Aura was the most injured one, the blonde girl's attention went to her first. "Shimizu-san, let me—"

"Focus on Paku-san," Aura demanded, as she pointed at the unconscious, short-haired girl with one of her fingers, "I'm alright." At first, the blonde girl wasn't sure what to do, but in the end, she nodded and hurried towards Paku. Whereas Shiemi and Izumo had their full attention on the unconscious girl, Aura was staring at the half-demon boy as he fought the naberius._ "I... have to do something...!"_

_"Young master..."_ Before Rin could react at what the demon had told him, it grabbed him by his head and threw him against the glass doors of the bathroom.

"Rin!" Even though she had no strenght left, the white-haired girl forced her body to work and shakily stood up on her feet. _"A weapon... Is there anything here that can be used as a weapon?"_ Aura looked around the whole bathroom, and as soon as she spotted the broken glass doors lying on the floor, an idea came to her.

_"Forgive me..."_ the naberius spoke, as it pinned the half-demon boy on the floor and strangled him. _"This is the order of a certain person..."_

_"Satan...?"_ Rin thought, as he started to feel light-headed. _"I can't... match it without my sword—"_ Suddenly, his thoughts were cut off when the demon let out a loud, piercing howl. The dark-haired boy inhaled deeply as the grip on his neck was finally gone, and when he looked up at the demon, his electric blue eyes shot open when he realised what had saved him._ "Aura?"_ The white-haired girl was on the demon's back, stabbing a big, sharp piece of glass on its neck. _"Snow woman..."_ the naberius said, as it turned to her, _"So you've targeted the young master, after all..."_

"What?" In a fast movement, the naberius grabbed the half-demon girl by the neck and threw her in the direction of the three girls.

"Shimizu-san!" Shiemi cried, as she stood up from where she was kneeling and ran up to her.

Now that the half-demon girl was out of the way, the demon's full attention went back to Rin. The naberius was ready to kill him, but even before it could harm him, it suddenly got shot several times. As soon as the gunshots rang in her ears, the white-haired girl looked up to see that Yukio had finally arrived, and was now shooting the demon – which, in the end, escaped. Aura let out a relieved sigh, and finally relaxed. _"I'm... so glad..."_ she thought, as she let her heavy eyelids fall.

"Shimizu-san...?" Shiemi pronounced, as she observed the half-demon girl. Her eyes were now closed, and there was a thin line of blood starting at her forehead, leading down to the end of her chin. For a second, the blonde girl thought the white-haired girl was unconscious, but she was soon proven wrong when the latter opened her eyes all of sudden. "A... are you alright?" Shiemi asked worriedly, and the half-demon girl nodded. Much to the blonde's surprise, she managed to stand up by herself, made her way to the shelves and sat there.

_"It hurts..."_ Aura thought, as she rested her back against the shelf. She was exhausted; her body was practically destroyed, and she felt dizzy from the pain of her wounds. She also felt pretty somnolent, hence she allowed herself to rest and began to fall asleep.

"Oi," she heard Rin's voice, but for some reason, she found no strength to answer him. "Oi, Aura!" he yelled once again, his voice sounding like it was fading away. "OI!"

Suddenly, she felt a slap across the face, which made her jump and shot open her grayish blue eyes. "W... what the hell are you doing, you idiot?!" Aura yelled, as she cupped her cheek with her hand and glared angrily at the half-demon boy, who was kneeling and looking at her with a mixture of shock and worry on his face. Rin had panicked at the thought she could possibly die, and honestly, the only thing that came to his mind was slapping her to wake her up. He didn't know she'd be so angry about it, though. She, on her part, simply kept glaring at him – until she looked down and realised that, for some bizarre reason, Rin had no shirt on. "W... wh..." she tried to speak, as she blushed heatedly and covered her eyes with her hands. "Where is your shirt?!"

"I... huh... lent it to someone," Rin replied, as he scratched his nose. He couldn't help but observe her, probably because the number of wounds she had was shocking, and he couldn't believe someone like her could bear so much pain. His electric blue eyes then travelled further down, and accidentally, he caught a glimpse of her underwear. Blushing slightly, he looked away embarrassed, as the white-haired girl looked at him with confusion. "Y... you okay?" he said, as he finally turned to look at her, "Want me to call Yukio so he can look at your wounds?"

"... No, it's okay. I'll be fine by tomorrow... I think," Aura replied, trusting her body was strong enough to heal without any kind of medical help. "I'll just go to my room and rest a bit."

A short silence followed.

"... You can stand up, right?" Rin asked, and the white-haired girl glared at him.

"... Of course I can," Aura replied, as she reached out her hand and supported herself on the shelves. She actually managed to stand up – although she took less than two steps and fell on her face.

Rin let out a sigh. "Yeah, right," he said, as he reached out and picked her up, putting an arm around her waist and helping her to stand up. He helped her to walk, but after a couple of steps, her legs finally gave out. "You seriously should let Yukio see—" he started, but stopped speaking when he noticed the facial expression she was wearing across her face. She looked frustrated and distressed, which lead him to think she was having a hard time accepting the fact her body had finally reached its limit. Without saying anything, Rin kneeled in front of her, his back to her, which earned him a confused gaze from the white-haired girl. Even before she could ask anything, he said, "C'mon, I'll carry you."

Aura hesitated, but in the end, she hopped up onto the half-demon boy's back and wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling her pride breaking into a million of pieces.

Rin's face heated up a bit when the girl's body pressed against his back. _"S... she's not wearing a bra..."_ he noted, but then he shook the thought away.

"Shimizu-san!" the two half-demons heard Yukio's voice, and they turned to see he and the rest of the exorcist trainees were running towards them.

"Rin! Your tail!" Aura muttered on his ear, and the half-demon boy quickly hid his tail inside his pants before anyone could see it.

"Are you alright?" Yukio asked with concern, as he and everyone else stared at her in shock. Aura felt overwhelmed by the many gazes planted on her, hence as an attempt to hide herself from everyone, she buried her head into Rin's neck. No words escaped the half-demon girl's mouth; her response was nothing else but a shy, slight nod. Yukio was about to ask her if she could let him check on her wounds, but he got distracted when he noticed something weird, or rather, missing on his older brother. "Nii-san..." he started, as he stared at Rin in shock. "Why are you half-naked?" Soon after those words left the young teacher's mouth, everyone's attention turned to the half-demon boy.

Rin's entire body tensed up. "... I got a bit carried away," was all he said before escaping out of the bathroom along with the white-haired girl.

**.**

**.**

**.**

"Your room was the 403, right?" Rin asked, as he walked through the dorm's hallways with the white-haired girl on his back.

Aura didn't reply, probably because her mind was somewhere else. _"I... don't get it,"_ she thought, her mind flooded with questions and doubts about the half-demon boy that was carrying her. _"Neuhaus-sensei wants Rin dead... The naberius called him 'young master'... He refused to use his sword despite he was in danger... Mephisto-san once said he's the son of an important demon..."_ Right at that moment, her thoughts were like an unarmed puzzle; she had many pieces, but she couldn't make them fit together. _"Just... who is Rin actually?"_

"Oi," Rin said, causing her to snap out of her trance. "Where—"

"Rin," she cut him off, "I... huh..." she had problems expressing herself, but as soon as she found the words she was looking for, she continued, "I... don't know if you consider us friends, but... you're my friend to me." Rin's electric blue eyes widened at the words that had escaped the white-haired girl's mouth. He didn't really understand what she was trying to say, but instead of asking questions, he remained quiet and listened to what she had to say. "You know, I'll... never judge you. You can trust me."

She couldn't see it, but there was a smile on Rin's face. "Thanks," he said. "I'll have that on mind."

Her words made him feel relieved; just as though a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Even so, he still couldn't tell her his secret; he wasn't ready to reveal such a thing about himself yet.

* * *

**A/N: ... /way too braindead to write proper author's notes.**


	11. DISTORTION

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

All Rin could do at that moment was stare at her as she received medical treatment. She was sleeping soundly, which was no surprise considering the great number of injuries she had across her body, and it seemed like she wasn't going to flutter her grayish blue eyes open any soon. At that moment, Yukio was taking care of her wounds, and even though he was injecting her with strong medicines, she still didn't wake up from her sleep. "She'll be fine... right?" Rin asked, his electric blue eyes glued on the half-demon girl as she slept.

Without getting distracted from the treatment, Yukio gave his older brother a nod. "She will as long as she rests enough," he said, as he injected her with another dose of medicine. "She'll feel decayed for the next week, but she should be able to stand up and walk normally in two or three days. She'll also have fever, but that can be solved with the proper medication." That said, he stood up, grabbing his medical kit. "Now I have to go and check on Paku-san. Tell Shimizu-san to get plenty of rest, okay?" Yukio said, and Rin responded by nodding. "Well then, see you later, Nii-san."

Rin observed his younger brother as he left the room, and then, his attention went back to the asleep white-haired girl. "You know something, don't you?" he asked, even though he knew she wouldn't reply him. _"What if she knew I'm Satan's son...?"_ Fear suddenly filled his mind; fear about losing the friendship he had built with her. Aura had said she wouldn't judge him, but still, he doubted she would stay by his side after finding out about his father. Just like him, the white-haired girl was a half-demon – but that didn't mean she wouldn't be scared of him. After all, he wasn't the son of any demon; he was the son of Satan, king of the demon realm of Gehenna, which certainly was fearsome, even for demons themselves._ "I... can't tell her. There's no way I can tell her..."_

The half-demon boy got distracted from his thoughts when Aura suddenly rolled in her bed, mumbled something he couldn't catch and simply kept sleeping.

As Rin observed her, a certain phrase of hers echoed in his mind, _"You know, I'll... never judge you. You can trust me."_ He smiled bitterly, probably because he had the feeling she wasn't saying the truth. "You better keep your words," he said, as he lightly poked her cheek. His warm touch hadn't interrupted her sleep, yet she had felt it nevertheless; her lips curved into a light smile at the very moment he had touched her, just as though she enjoyed the feeling of his touch. The moment he saw that smile of hers, he forgot about everything bothering him. His problems, his fears, even the fact he was the son of Satan; everything had suddenly vanished away from his mind. For some reason he didn't understand himself, seeing her smile made him feel strangely light-hearted.

**.**

**.**

**.**

"You should be just fine now," Yukio said, as he injected medicine on his student's arm, "In two or three days more, your fever will go down, and you should be up and about again."

"Thank you very much, Okumura-sensei," the brunette, short-haired girl said, as she gave her teacher a light smile.

Izumo silently observed her best friend as she received treatment, concern and deception filling her crimson red eyes. _"My only friend... I couldn't help her..."_ she thought, as she recalled the events of the previous day. Thanks to her incompetence in battle, both her best friend and one of her classmates were injured. She thought of herself as someone strong and skilled, hence the fact she failed to protect both of them was mortifying to her. She obviously was worried about her best friend's wellbeing, but strangely enough, she was also worried about a certain white-haired girl who had jumped to her help when she was defenseless. _"I wonder if she's alright..."_ She considered the idea of visiting her to thank her properly for helping her, but—

"Can I go in~?" a voice suddenly said from outside the room, causing everyone in the room to turn and stare at the door.

Think of the devil, and he shall come; it seemed like Aura was standing outside in the hallway.

"Oi~ Open up~!" she said, and an instant later, Rin suddenly shot the door open. "Ah, Rin. I—"

"What the hell?!" he yelled, earning himself an angry glare from the white-haired girl. "You're supposed to be in bed!"

"I'm fine already. Besides, I want to see Paku-san," Aura said in annoyance, as she forcefully entered the room and made her way towards Paku. Even though she had said she was fine, she certainly had yet to recover; her wounds still stang, and her body was sore to the point she was limping. She wouldn't let something like that stop her, though; she was tired of being in bed, plus she didn't like the idea of wasting her time lying in bed when she could be doing important things. "Are you alright, Paku-san?" she said, as she knelt next to the bed where the short-haired, brunette girl lay.

Paku smiled weakly and nodded. "Okumura-sensei says I'll be fine in a few days," she said, as she stared at Aura with concern on her eyes. She instantly noticed there were many bandages and plasters on the white-haired girl's body, which were presumably applied to the spirit wounds she had received from the naberius the previous day. There was no doubt she had been badly injured, but surprisingly enough, she still had enough energy to move around on her own, and even managed to arrive at the room without anyone's help. It truly astonished her; the white-haired girl's strength. "... Thank you, Shimizu-san."

"... Huh?" Aura blinked her wide, grayish blue eyes in confusion. "What for?" she asked, truly clueless as to why the brunette girl was suddenly thanking her.

"Izumo-chan told me about it; you fought and got hurt for us while I was unconscious..." Paku replied, still wearing a soft smile across her face. "Thank you for helping us, Shimizu-san."

_"Kamiki-san... said I helped her?"_ Aura thought in shock, as she turned to look at the pig-tailed girl – who instantly gave an irritated scoff and glanced away. _"She thought... I was helpful..."_ She then turned her attention to the short-haired girl, and smiled lightly. "You should be thanking Kamiki-san," she said, causing Izumo's crimson red eyes to widen in shock. "Kamiki-san struggled to save you until the very end. She... really is a great friend." Honestly, the white-haired girl was jealous of their relationship. She would never admit it, but very deep inside, she wished she could have a friend like that, too.

Forgetting about the many wounds she had, she tried to stand up from where she was kneeling, and winced as soon as a strong, piercing pain shot down her legs. Expectedly, she earned herself worried looks, especially from Yukio, who was the one who had given her medical treatment. "You should go and rest, Shimizu-san," he said, concerned about the fact the healing of her wounds might not be progressing adequately. "You'll recover a lot faster if you stay in bed."

An angry pout quickly took over Aura's face. "I'm not that weak," she said, pretty annoyed at the fact everyone was looking down on her. "I can—"

"You heard Yukio," Rin cut her off, as he offered her his hand to help her up. Of course, the white-haired girl rejected it without thinking twice; she wasn't willing to let her pride suffer anymore, after all. She stood up on her feet, and even managed to walk towards the door, although her steps were slow and clumsy as the pain piercing her limbs was harder to ignore than she expected. She was innerly cursing herself for being such a weak person, when she suddenly was caught by an arm around her waist.

"... I don't need your help," Aura almost growled, as she shot an enraged glare at the half-demon boy, who was supporting her weight and helping her to balance.

Rin returned her glare with one of his own. "You're really stubborn, you know that?" No words came out from the half-demon girl's mouth, probably because she knew he was right. She simply bit her lower lip and looked down at the floor, feeling utterly embarrassed at the fact she was displaying such a weak, pathetic side of herself. After letting out a somewhat annoyed sigh, the dark-haired, half-demon boy turned to look at the girl in bed. "Get well soon!" he said, wearing a smile across his face.

"Thank you, Okumura-kun," Paku said, as a light, pinkish blush took hold of her cheeks.

Then, despite the white-haired girl's protests and struggles, Rin dragged her outside the room, whereas Yukio simply let out a tired sigh and followed them from behind. A deep silence followed, until it was interrupted by Paku's soft laugh. "How cute..." she said, wearing a tender smile across her face. "Don't you think Shimizu-san and Okumura-kun make a cute couple?"

Izumo jumped in surprise at her best friend's sudden statement. "Wha...? W–where did that come from all of a sudden?"

"I think they like each other... I mean, it's obvious Okumura-kun likes Shimizu-san a lot, but Shimizu-san acts like she doesn't..." Paku commented, and the pig-tailed, purple-haired girl observed her with curious eyes. "She should be more honest to herself, don't you think?" Since she knew well the kind of girl Izumo was, the short-haired girl was expecting her to make a comment about it, yet much to her surprise, she didn't. "Izumo-chan..." Paku started, hoping her best friend would understand her decision. "I... really am going to stop coming to these classes..."

**.**

**.**

**.**

Up in the cloudless sky, the sun was shining brightly. At that moment, Rin was on the roof of the old, male dormitory, feeling the warm sunlight touching his tan skin as he lay face up on the floor. Absolutely no sounds disturbed him, and despite how relaxing it was, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. A lot of things troubled him, such as the words of the demon that he had fought the previous day. _"This is the order of a certain person..."_ – that was what the naberius had told him, but no matter how much he dwelled on it, he couldn't figure out who this person was.

_"A certain person...? Who could it have meant?"_ Rin thought, a frown across his face. _"I thought of Satan, but... I can't think of any reason why he'd suddenly have decided to kill me, so..."_ His electric blue eyes sank into the depth of the sky, as a memory of his now deceased father flashed on his mind. An instant later, his thoughts went back to the naberius that had appeared on the bathroom the day before. _"Either way, it seems pretty clear that it's me that thing was after,"_ he thought, remembering how determined it was to finish him. "Damn it..." he said in annoyance, "Why can't they just face me themselves...?!"

"Because it wouldn't be that easy," the voice of a certain white-haired girl suddenly rang on the half-demon's ears, interrupting his thoughts.

Rin leaned forward and sat, turning to see Aura – who was supposed to be resting – approaching him. "You never listen, do you?" he questioned, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"No, I don't," Aura replied simply, as she sat next to him and peered at him through her white eyelashes. Not even a few seconds later, the rays of the sun started to bother her sight, so she shadowed her eyes with her hand, blocking out the strong, bright sunlight that was blinding her. "Something wrong?" she asked, interrupting the silence between them. "You look worried."

"... I was thinking about the demon from yesterday," Rin replied, as he glanced up at the sky. "I know that thing was after me but... why?"

"Well, Neuhaus-sensei probably has his reasons... though that doesn't justify what he's doing," Aura said, and a short silence followed.

When Rin registered what the white-haired girl had said, his electric blue eyes shot open. "W... what?!" he yelled, as he turned to look at her in complete shock.

"You don't need to worry, Rin. It's okay," Aura smiled lightly, "I'll... definitely kill Neuhaus-sensei for you."

Rin stared up at her in shock, his mouth agape and his eyes wide. He didn't know what shocked him more; the fact one of his teachers was a possible culprit for what had happened, or the fact the white-haired girl had said she would kill him. "You..." He had countless questions he wanted to ask her, yet he couldn't find the right words to express himself due the huge shock he had suffered. "How—"

"Rin! Shimizu-san!" a soft, cheerful voice suddenly chirped, breaking the tense atmosphere between the two half-demons.

"Ah, Moriyama-san..." Aura said, as she turned to look at the lively, blonde girl that had just showed up. _"Why now...?"_ she thought in disappointment, _"Right when I could be alone with Rin..."_ When she realised what she was thinking, her grayish blue eyes widened, and a soft, pinkish blush colored her cheeks. She then shook her head as an attempt to shake all these strange thoughts off, and couldn't help but wonder why she wanted to be alone with the half-demon boy in the first place.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Following her routine, Izumo headed to classroom one thousand one hundred and six for her cram school lessons. The neglected room, the desk, her classmates, her teachers; everything was just as usual, excepting for one single detail – her best friend wasn't there with her. Paku had been by her side ever since that day they became friends during her childhood days, therefore her absence made her feel lonely. _"Paku..."_ Izumo was deep sunken into her thoughts, and thus she didn't realise that someone was observing her.

"Kamiki-san?" a voice suddenly rang on the pig-tailed girl's ears, causing her to snap out of her trance. "Are you okay?"

"W... why are you sitting here?!" Izumo yelled, jumping in shock at the sight of a certain white-haired girl, who happened to be sitting next to her.

"Huh...? Ah, Suguro-kun was being annoying so I thought I'd sit here instead," Aura replied, and the dark purple-haired girl just stared at her, surprise filling her crimson red eyes. "It's okay, isn't it? Since Paku-san isn't coming here anymore..." After that last comment, a slight, yet noticeable hint of sadness appeared on Izumo's face – which, of course, wasn't overlook by the white-haired girl. "There's no need to feel bad, Kamiki-san," she paused a bit, "Paku-san just—"

"Shut up," Izumo suddenly cut her off, her glare piercing holes into the pale girl sitting next to her. "I don't need your pity."

Aura just stared at her, surprise across her face. "I... don't pity you, Kamiki-san. I just..." she paused a bit, and then added, "I was happy."

Izumo stared at her, completely bewildered. "Happy...?"

"You're... one of the most amazing persons I know, Kamiki-san. You're smart, strong and talented... plus you care about your friends a lot. To be honest, I like you a lot... so when Paku-san told me you said I helped you, I felt... really happy," Aura said, wearing a blank expression across her face as she spoke, "I don't really understand why friends are so important, but... it seems it's important to you. I've... never had friends, so I don't know how you're feeling right now... but still, I wanted to help you."

Izumo couldn't believe what she had just heard. _"W... what's with her all of a sudden...?"_ she thought, wondering what on earth had gotten into the white-haired girl's head. In all honestly, she didn't particularly like Aura. At first, she didn't mind her nor was she interested in her, but after that time they exchanged words during that class in which they tested their talent as tamers, she inevitably grew to dislike her. She found her nothing but foolish – but even so, she was grateful for one particular thing that foolish, white-haired girl had done. "I... really hate those of your kind," Izumo said as she turned away, avoiding to look at the many bandages the white-haired girl had, "But... thank you for yesterday. If I had been stronger, you and Paku wouldn't have been hurt, so... I'm sorry."

After hearing such words, Aura couldn't help but smile sheepishly. "No needs to be sorry, Izumo-chan!" she said softly, her voice sounding unusually warm and lively.

Immediately, Izumo flushed as her crimson red eyes widened. "D... don't address me so friendly without the proper honorifics!"

**.**

**.**

**.**

From the moment he had stepped into the classroom to begin with his lesson, Neuhaus had felt a pair of eyes pierced on him. At first, he thought it was just his imagination playing a trick on him, but once he realised that a certain one of his students had her eyes on him, everything started to make sense.

_"Shimizu Aura..."_ he thought as he schemed a diagram on the blackboard, _"She's planning something, isn't she?"_ Neuhaus then turned around to face the class, and just as he expected, the white-haired girl was glaring at him. Her grayish blue eyes glowed with malevolence, exactly like the ones of a demon. "I'd like someone to come to the front and fill in the missing section of this magical array," he said, ignoring the white-haired girl and instead turning his attention to the purple-haired girl sitting next to her. "Kamiki," he called, yet he received no answer. "Kamiki!"

Izumo jumped in startle at the teacher's loud voice, snapping out of the deep trance she was in. "Ah... I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention..."

"Something wrong?" Neuhaus asked, slightly surprised, "That's not like you."

_"I... can't believe I was spacing out in class,"_ Izumo thought, totally dissapointed of herself, _"Unbelievable...!"_

"May I, Neuhaus-sensei?" Aura suddenly asked, causing Rin's electric blue eyes to shot open.

"... Go ahead," Neuhaus said with suspicion, eyeing the white-haired, half-demon girl warily.

Rin stared at the half-demon girl, as she stood up from her desk and made her way towards the blackboard. _"She... won't do anything, right...?"_ he thought nervously, as a certain phrase of hers echoed on his mind. She had said she would kill the magic circles teacher, but was she serious about doing so? Or was she joking around? Rin didn't see her as someone capable of killing a person, yet at the same time, he doubted she was joking.

Without saying anything, Aura simply grabbed a chalk and began to complete the missing part of the diagram. As she steadily wrote in the blackboard, Neuhaus observed her with caution, just as though he were waiting for her to attack. "Isn't it weird, Neuhaus-sensei?" she suddenly asked, her words catching the teacher's attention. "A naberius suddenly showed up at the male dormitory and attacked some us... Isn't it suspicious?" she continued, as she jerked her head to look at him. "I heard this academy is protected with powerful wards, so there's no way a demon like that could have gotten in..." she paused a bit, and then added, "That means... that demon was summoned by someone who was already inside the academy, right?"

Neuhaus didn't say anything; he simply observed the white-haired girl as she put the chalk on the holder below the blackboard and silently returned to her desk.

**.**

**.**

**.**

_"What? This is hard..."_ Aura thought, frowning in confusion at the difficult text she was trying to understand. _"Am I really this stupid...?" _

Her full attention was on the holy scriptures textbook she was reading, her concentration so deep on it that she had absolutely no notion of her surroundings. She was oblivious to the world around her, and thus, she didn't really notice that two of her classmates – more precisely, Kamiki Izumo and Suguro Ryūji – had gotten into an argument. At some point, though, the angry voices filling the classroom got loud to the point it started to disturb the white-haired girl's reading, inevitably making her realise what was going on around her.

"Oh, of course... You wanted to 'defeat Satan,' isn't that right?" Izumo asked, an amused mock on her face, "Hah! You expect me to do anything other than laugh at a joke like that?!"

_"Defeat Satan...?"_ Aura thought, surprised at the fact someone smart like Suguro had chosen such a – in her opinion – pointless, childish goal._ "That's... impossible."_

"Well, what about you then, huh...?!" Suguro yelled, glaring fiercely at the pig-tailed girl. "Why do you want to become an exorcist?! Go on, tell us!"

"Why..." Izumo paused a bit, as a harsh memory of her past flew into her mind, "I've... never told anyone why I want to become one... Unlike show-offs like you!"

Aura couldn't help but flinch when the boy with a blonde streak across his hair snapped, "You little bitch!" Out of anger, he grabbed the pig-tailed, purple-haired girl by the collar of her shirt, and she, by impulse, tried to slap him across the face. She failed, though; instead, she ended up hitting Rin, who had stood up from his desk with the intention of stopping the fight.

"That's enough!" the voice of the anti-demon pharmacology teacher suddenly thundered in the classroom, causing everyone to flinch.

* * *

**A/N: ... /hides behind desk in case someone wants to throw something at her. **

**Sorry for the late update! It's just... it's just... just... /has no excuses. I'M SORRY! /shot. I started vacations a few days ago, so I'll have the next chapter soon! Well... at least I think I will... /dodges brick. Thanks to all who are reading this story, especially to the ones who take their time to review! THANK YOU~! /hugs. Ah, btw... I posted a drawing of Rin and Aura on my dA a few days ago. If you're interested, the link to my dA is on my profile!**


	12. s A t A n

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

Due to the argument that had taken place earlier, the whole class got punished; the punishment being holding stones on their laps. Those weren't normal stones, though; they were actually baryons, a type of demon that the more it's held, the heavier it becomes. It wasn't the first time Aura had seen this demon – in fact, there were a few of them in the home she had left to come to the academy – but in all honestly, she never thought she would have to hold one as punishment.

"W... what's with this stone?" Rin muttered, his legs already feeling numb for the weight on his lap. "It's getting heavier!"

"It's a low-level demon, too," Konekomaru replied strainedly, "It gets heavier... while you hold it."

"You don't even know about baryon demons...?" Suguro said, as he turned to glare at the half-demon boy. "Pathetic."

"Shut up, will you?" Aura said in annoyance, "It's your fault we're being punished, after all."

"What the hell?!" Suguro yelled, as he turned to glare at the white-haired girl. "You wanna start something too, Shimizu?!"

"This is what we call collective responsibility," Yukio cut in, stopping the argument even before it could turn into something worse. "The aims of this training camp are twofold," he paused a bit, adjusted his glasses and then added, "Firstly, to increase your abilities, and secondly, to deepen your relations with your fellow students."

"I refuse to get along with these brutes!" Izumo huffed, earning herself an enraged glare from the boy with the blonde streak.

"I'm afraid that you'll have to," Yukio responded at the pig-tailed, purple-haired girl's comment. "No exorcist can fight alone!" At this statement, everyone's attention perked up, "Making use of one another's specialities and compensating for one another's weak points... Fighting in a party of two or more is basic procedure for any exorcist," he stated, as his turquoise eyes travelled through his students, "If you were to fall out like this in an actual battle, you would face collective responsibility on an entirely different level from this simple punishment. Think about that."

_"No exorcist can fight alone, huh...?"_ Aura thought, innerly questioning that way of thinking.

Yukio then pulled back his sleeve and checked the time before announcing, "Now I'll be gone for three hours on a mission. Due to the incident with the ghoul yesterday, I will be locking all entrances and exits to the building, and putting up powerful wards around it, just in case."

"Lock all the exits...?" Aura mumbled, as her grayish blue eyes widened in panic. _"But... what will happen if we get attacked...?"_ she thought, as she turned to look at the dark-haired, half-demon boy that was sitting next to her. _"Neuhaus-sensei hasn't killed Rin yet... so there's no doubt he'll attack today, too."_ Out of nervousness, she started to claw her nails at the wooden floor. _"I have... to think of something..."_

"How are we meant to get out of here, then?" Suguro asked, and the young, brunette teacher gave him a smile.

"There will be no need for you to leave," Yukio replied, as he turned around, "In the three hours I'll be gone, you will get on well and cool your heads." That said, he left, locking the door behind him.

_"All the exits are locked..."_ Aura thought, as she lifted up her gaze and scanned the whole room, looking for an escape route. _"Rin and I could escape through the windows, but..."_ She discarded the idea right away; she was aware of that her classmates – who were nothing but normal humans – wouldn't survive from jumping out a third floor window, after all. _"How can we escape, then...?"_

As the white-haired, half-demon girl was trying to come up with a plan, another argument was starting to take place.

"Well, this is a fine mess someone's gone and got us all into," Suguro said, as a scowl took over his face.

"Huh?!" Izumo looked at him with indignation, "Says the brute who was manhandling me by the chest back there!"

"You're the one who was practically begging for a fight!" Suguro barked, glaring daggers into the pig-tailed girl.

"... Don't fight with me in the middle!" Rin yelled, yet he was completely ignored.

The loud voices filling the whole room didn't let the white-haired girl think in the slightest. Suguro's yelling, Izumo's shouts, Rin's complaints – the bickering made her nervous, and at some point, she got fed up with it. "Can you guys stop fighting already?!" she snapped all of sudden, causing everyone to go silent and stare at her in complete shock. It was strange to see someone calm and collected like the white-haired girl to shout with such anger, after all.

A short silence followed – until Suguro turned to glare at the pig-tailed girl and tried to interrupt it, "You really are—"

"Cut it out!" Aura yelled at the delinquent-looking boy, "Izumo-chan just—"

"Will you stop already?!" Izumo cut the white-haired girl off, "I don't need you defending me!"

Aura's eyes were now filled with a mixture of shock and confusion. "But I—"

Izumo cut her off yet again, "We're not friends, so stop treating me like one!"

No words came out the white-haired girl's mouth, probably because she wasn't exactly sure what to say. She simply stared at the pig-tailed, purple-haired girl, her grayish blue eyes slightly opaque, just as though they had lost the little shine they had. She wasn't exactly sad or hurt – she considered such emotions weren't worthy of situations like this – yet she was surprised nonetheless as she didn't think the tamer girl disliked her that much. In all honestly, she wasn't trying to force a friendship between herself and her; she simply did and said what she thought it was right.

"... You really are one nasty piece of work," Suguro almost growled, anger overflowing his eyes.

Izumo snickered tauntingly, "I'm perfectly aware of that, thank you. So what?"

"You'll make every damn person around you run for the hills acting like that!" Surprisingly enough, Suguro's words had an effect on the pig-tailed girl. A frown took over her face, and her crimson red eyes widened in surprise. The boy with the blonde streak was expecting her to say anything, but she remained quiet as she had lost words to say.

Without warnings, the lights suddenly turned off, and the room sank into pitch black darkness. The group of exorcist apprentices jumped at the sudden blackout, standing up and pushing the stones off their laps – excepting for Aura, who on the other hand, remained calm._ "A black out...?"_ she thought, as she stood up from where she was sitting, _"Why, all of sudden...?"__  
_

"Th... that idiot teacher..." Ryuji said in shock, "Did he go and cut the power and all?!"

"Surely he wouldn't," Konekomaru said, his voice showing fear.

"Then... is it a black out?" Izumo asked, and the white-haired girl shook her head in denial.

"Look," Aura said, pointing her finger in the direction of the room's windows. "There are still lights out there, so it can't be a black out."

Rin frowned in confusion. "Is this the only building without power?"

_"A black out restricted to this building...?"_ Suddenly, Aura's grayish blue eyes widened in alarm at a realisation. _"Ghouls are more active in the dark!"__  
_

"Rin!" The half-demon boy reacted when he heard his name, and turned to look at the white-haired girl, whose face was uncomfortably close to his own. His eyes widened in surprise, and his cheeks heated up slightly when he felt her cold hands holding his own hand tightly. He was about to ask her what she was doing, when she cut him off, "Run away!"

Rin just stared at her, almost as though he hadn't registered her words.

"Rin! You have to get out of here!" Aura yelled, causing him to finally snap out of his trance. "You're Neuhaus-sensei's target! At this point, you'll..." Her voice trailed off when she saw that her pink-haired classmate was making his way towards the room exit. "Wait! It's dangerous!"

"It's okay Aura-chan, don't worry~ Tell the truth, I kinda like little incidents like this," he commented with a grin across his face, as he opened the room's only door. "It's like a real-life test of courage~" Right in front of him, a naberius stood eye to eye with him, yet he didn't react in the slightest. He simply closed the door, and jerked his head to look at the rest of the group. "That's odd," he said, "Am I seeing things...?" Reacting quickly, the white-haired girl ran towards the pink-haired boy, grabbed him by his arm and dragged him away from the door, saving him from the naberius, which an instant later broke the door.

"It's the ghoul from yesterday!" Izumo exclaimed at the sight of the creature entering the room.

"D... didn't Okumura-sensei say he'd set up wards?!" Konekomaru cried out in fear.

One of the demon's two heads started to swell up, and at some point, the stitches attaching it didn't hold anymore. It exploded, spraying the exorcist students with a thick, dark fluid. As would be expected, the liquid was acidic; it burned where it touched, no matter whether it was clothes or skin.

"I... I have to protect everyone!" Shiemi thought, as she turned to look at her small familiar. "Nii-chan!" she called, "I need an Una-una-kun!" Everyone stared in shock as large tree rots started to grow from the tiny green man, creating a barricade in front of them and forcing the naberius to stay on the other side of the room. "Thank you, Nii-chan!" the blonde girl giggled happily, as she rubbed the green demon against her cheek. All of a sudden, she started to feel light-headed, and at some point, she couldn't remain upright anymore and fell on her knees.

"Shiemi?" Rin observed in confusion as everyone – excepting for the white-haired girl – started to cough. "Huh...?! What's wrong with you?"

"It's because of the miasma the ghoul sprayed at us," Izumo said, holding back her coughs, "Doesn't it bother you?" Rin remained quiet; he wasn't sure how to reply at that, after all.

"If Moriyama-san's strenght runs out, the barricade will be gone," Suguro pointed out, as he looked at the blonde girl, "Then we'll be done for."

"... Damn, Yukio, where did you go?" Rin pulled out his cellphone, dialed his younger brother's number but received no answer. "He's not picking up his phone..."

Aura's eyes shot open when she saw the dark-haired, half-demon boy making his way towards an opening in the barricade made of roots. "W... what are you doing?!"

"I'll head outside and lure it away," Rin said with confidence, earning himself bewildered looks from his classmates. "If I can get it following me, then the rest of you run for it. If it doesn't follow me, I'll see what can I do about finding help or at least getting some light here." With that said, he turned around and hopped up into the roots.

"W... what are you talking about?!" Suguro snapped at the dark-haired boy, " Are you crazy?!"

"Don't worry about me," Rin grinned, as he started to make his way through the branches. "I'm stronger than I look!"

"You idi—! Oi! Okumura!" Suguro yelled, yet the half-demon boy ignored him completely.

_"W... what's with him?"_ Aura thought, as she stared off at the barricade made of branches. _"Just... who does he think he is? He's not that strong. He'll... die at this rate."_ Unconsciously, she balled up her fists, her nails digging into her palm to the point it bled. _"I... have to do something."_ And so, without herself realising her own actions, she started to walk towards the branches. _"I've got to protect Rin!"_

"Oi, Shimizu!" Suguro shouted, as he grabbed the white-haired girl by her wrist, stopping her from doing whatever crazy thing she was planning to do.

"Let me go!" Aura cried out in anger, as she tried to break free from the boy's grip. "R... Rin is—"

"Are you an idiot?!" Suguro yelled at her, annoyed at how ridiculous she was being, "You're hurt! Hell, you're even limping!" It was true; her wounds from the previous day had yet to heal, and even though she would never admit it, they were painful to the point she couldn't move as swiftly as would have wanted. "Do you wanna die or what?!"

_"... Suguro-kun is right. I'll die if I go out now,"_ Aura thought, as she relaxed and stopped struggling, _"But..."_ She clenched her teeth tightly, annoyed at the turn of events. An instant later, though, her features relaxed, and a calm smile crossed them. She even let out a chuckle, which caused the boy who was holding her wrist to look at her with confusion. "Death doesn't scare me," she paused a bit, and then, with a louder voice, she added, "I've got to help Rin, no matter what!" With a violent tug, she released herself from the boy's grip, and ran towards the barricade.

Aura then weaved her way through the maze of branches, ignoring the voices of her classmates as they called for her to come back. When she was about to reach the exit of the room, her grayish blue eyes widened at the sight of a big creature standing ahead. _"Didn't it have two heads...?"_ she thought in confusion, as she studied the naberius at the distance. _"It split in two?!"_

"What an idiots...!" Suguro said, wondering what on earth the two half-demons were thinking.

"Anyway, let's just get out of here!" Shima said, turning to look at the blonde girl, who seemed to be at her limit. "Moriyama-san, you can lower the barrica—"

"There are two ghouls!" They suddenly heard Aura's voice coming from the other side of the room, "Rin only lured one of them away! The other one's still here!"

After hearing her shouts, the demon finally grew aware of the white-haired girl's presence. It looked around itself, and as soon as it spotted her a few meters ahead, it lunged towards her and grabbed her by the neck with one of its four hands. Aura shut her eyes tightly, expecting herself to be either suffocated or decapitated, but much to her luck, the demon threw her away. After her back slammed against the wall, she winced in pain and coughed up blood, but quickly stood up on her feet again. She was ready for the demon to attack her, but she soon realised it hadn't its attention on her anymore; instead, it was smashing branches out of its way, trying to get through the barricade protecting the rest of the students. With the naberius distracted, she took the opportunity and ran away from there.

**.**

**.**

**.**

After running as fast and far as he could, Rin arrived at which seemed to be the facility room of the old male dormitory. "The switchboard, the switchboard..." His electric blue eyes scanned the entire room, until he finally spotted what he was looking for. "Ah, this is it! This is what you use to switch the electricity on and off, right...?" He stared at the multiple switches for a moment, and realised that every single one of them were down. "I knew it! The whole lot of them are turned off!"

Rin lifted his hand to flip the switch, but before he could even touch it, the naberius that had been following him suddenly showed up and attacked him. It wrapped its tongue around his head, and in a quick movement, it threw him against the railings on the room's upper level. The demon then lunged towards him, but the dark-haired boy managed to dodge its attack by hopping up onto the railings and jumping off. He landed on the low level's floor and glared up at the demon, which immediately jumped from where it was, ready to attack him. "Don't get in my way!" Rin yelled, as blue flames erupted from his body, causing the naberius to back away from him.

"That's it, those flames are what I wanted to see," a voice suddenly rang in the room, and the half-demon boy quickly turned around to see a familiar man walking in the room. "Those blue flames..." His electric blue eyes widened in shock at what he was seeing; Neuhaus, his magic circles teacher, was standing on the room's upper level, glaring at him with contempt on his gaze. "I deduced you wouldn't use your flames in front of others, so I took the liberty of inviting you here, Okumura Rin..." Neuhaus said, his glare glued on the boy covered in flames, "Son of Satan!"

Suddenly, the words of a certain white-haired girl started to echo in his mind. _"Aura... was right. She was right the whole time,"_ Rin thought, still unable to believe the fact one of his teachers was actually an enemy. "So... yersterday's attack and today's... They were both your doing?" he asked, and the teacher smirked maliciously.

"Indeed, they were," Neuhaus replied, still with a smirk across his face, "But enough talk... Let me see more of those flames of yours!"

Rin opened his mouth to yell at his teacher, when he suddenly spotted moving figure behind him._ "Aura...?"_

When least expected, the white-haired girl had showed up, knife in hand, ready to stab Neuhaus from behind. Before she could even scratch him, though, the teacher's familiar lunged towards her, knocking her down the floor and holding her there. "Back off!" she yelled enraged, and in a fast motion, slashed its only eye. The demon let out a pained screech, and immediately, tried to attack her. Despite the fact it had lost its vision, it managed to wrap its tongue around her wrist, throwing her across the room.

"Aura!" Rin reacted quickly and caught her before she hit the rigid ground, falling backwards with her in his arms.

Not even three seconds later, the white-haired girl's grayish blue eyes shot open at a painful sensation. It was hot and painful; a few spots of her body felt as though they were burning in fire. By reflexes, she tried to stand up, but her legs failed and she fell back to the floor, crashing on her knees. Looking down, she saw the edges of her uniform charred, and her skin burnt at several places. Undoubtedly, she had made contact with fire, and when she turned around to look behind her, she found the source of the fire that had burned her.

"Rin...?" Aura mumbled in shock, as she stared at the boy covered in the blue flames of Satan.

Even before Rin could open his mouth to speak, the naberius suddenly jumped from the room's upper level and landed a few meters away from them, intending to attack despite its blindness. The half-demon boy turned his attention towards the teacher's familiar, took his sword out of its red casing, and unsheated it. Aura observed in awe as the blue flames engulfed its sharp edge, giving her the impression there was a special connection between the half-demon boy and the sword he was holding in his hands. Rin then jumped towards the demon, stabbing his sword into its head and causing it to burn in fire. An instant later, the demon collapsed into the ground, the flames slowly consuming its rotten body into ashes.

Slowly and carefully, Aura managed to stand up on her feet, her legs shaking slightly due to her lack of strength. "Rin," she said, yet strangely enough, he didn't react at his name being called; he just remained standing there with downcast eyes, dazzling flames dancing around him. "Rin!" As soon as she noticed the facial expression he was wearing across his face, she realised something was wrong. She saw it clearly; the frustration and distress reflected on his eyes. _"It's... my fault, isn't it?"_ she thought in guilt, as she remembered what she had done earlier, _"Rin saved me, but... I just backed away from him."_

Rin, on his part, was deep in his own thoughts. _"She... could've died,"_ he thought, as his electric blue eyes travelled through the white-haired girl, noticing she had several burns on her arms and legs, and also that part of her clothes were corroded and scorched. That was when he finally grew aware of the fact his flames were extremely dangerous, and if he wasn't careful enough, he could end up harming his loved ones with them. _"I could've killed—"_ Rin snapped back to reality when he felt a pair of trembling hands on his shoulders; hands that dared to touch him despite he was still wrapped in blue flames. Those hands belonged to none other but to the white-haired girl, whose face was facing the floor in shame. "W... what the hell are you doing?!" he shouted, as he tried to release himself from her grip.

"I'm sorry!" Aura cried, still not daring to look at him straight into his eyes, "I... I told you that you could trust me, b–but I..." Rin looked at her in shock, not only because he was surprised by how strong she could be, but also because it was the very first time she displayed so much emotion in her voice. "I'll become strong!" she said, as she did her best effort to endure the painful, burning sensation in her hands, "I'll... become strong... and it won't hurt as much," she paused a bit, and then added, "So please wait for me!"

At some point, Aura couldn't stand it anymore and released him, wincing in pain at the stinging raw flesh of her hands. Rin, on his part, sheathed his sword, causing the flames surrounding him to vanish away, just as though they had been an illusion the whole time. He then made a few steps closer to her, and she, out of curiosity, lifted up her gaze from the floor and finally dared to meet his eyes. A soothing feeling of relief filled her; frustration and distress were now gone from the dark-haired boy's eyes.

"You... aren't scared of me, right?" Rin asked, even though he was pretty sure what she would reply.

Aura cocked her eyebrows in confusion. "Why would I?" she said, completely clueless as to why he was asking such a thing, "You're not scary at all."

After hearing the white-haired girl's words, Rin's features softened, and a smile spread across his face. He felt relieved; she was the first one of his friends to learn about his secret, and despite the fact she now knew who his father was, her view on him hadn't changed. In a way, it gave him confidence; he was aware of that his heritage wasn't going to remain a secret forever, and even if everyone else rejected him for being the son of the king of demons, he knew there was a girl who would always accept him for what he is. He didn't think his friends would reject him, though; he had faith in them, after all.

"Thank you," Rin grinned happily, earning himself a confused look from the half-demon girl.

_"Thank you? __What for...?_" Aura thought, puzzled at the dark-haired boy, _"Rin is so weird sometimes..."_

"Alright, let's go meet the others!" Rin said with a lively voice, as he turned on his heels to walk out of the room.

"The others...? Ah, speaking of which," Aura started, and the half-demon boy jerked his head to look at her with curiosity, "You turned on the lights, right?"

Rin froze right in his place. "The... lights?"

_"... I hope Suguro-kun and the rest are okay,"_ Aura thought, as she stared at the half-demon boy as he ran towards the switchboard.

* * *

**A/N: Here, have an update.  
**

******Thank you so much for reading this thing~! **/runs away.


	13. Confession

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

After switching on the electricity, Rin immediately rushed forward. He was running as fast as he could through the dorm's halls, wondering whether his classmates had defeated the naberius or not, when he suddenly stopped hearing steps behind him. He turned around to face the white-haired girl, leaning on the wall and panting heavily. There was no doubt she was exhausted; she lacked plenty of rest, plus her body was full of wounds, some of which were his fault. Rin's facial expression twisted into a troubled, guilty one, which, of course, the white-haired girl didn't overlook.

"Don't wait for me. Go ahead," Aura demanded, and even before the dark-haired boy could refuse, she added, "Go! I'll catch up later!"

Rin hesitated a bit, but in the end, he gave her a nod and decided to do as the white-haired girl told him. She, on her part, simply stared at the half-demon boy as he ran away, her head filled with thoughts about him. _"Rin is... the son of Satan,"_ she thought, the dazzling blue flames she had seen finally making an impact in her. _"Rin..."_ All the pieces in her puzzle suddenly started to fit each other, and countless crude realisations started to emerge.

_"Rin and I..."_ Rin was the son of the king of the demon realm of Gehenna, whereas she was the daughter of one of the many demons that wandered in hell. Rin had inherited the legendary, deadly blue flames from his father, but she had inherited nothing from her unknown demon mother. Rin was one of the princes of Gehenna, while she, on the other hand, was nothing more but an insignificant commoner. _"Rin and I... aren't similar at all,"_ she thought, finally realising the huge gap between him and herself.

Aura wanted to be strong enough to fight by his side, but how was she supposed to match up to a demon prince? How was she supposed to protect him when he was stronger than she'll ever be? How was she supposed to stay by his side when she wasn't strong enough to stand the heat of his flames? How was she supposed to follow his pace when she was so pathethically weak? She had told him to wait for herself to become strong, but how long was she going to make him wait? _"... Damn it."_

**.**

**.**

**.**

When Aura arrived at the room, she sighed in relief at seeing the rest of her classmates were alright. Rin was being chased by an enraged Suguro for god knows why, while Shima and Konekomaru observed the show the two boys were playing out. Izumo was helping an exhausted Shiemi to sit upright, while Yamada and Takara **–** whom she wasn't exactly close to **–** were silently sitting on the back of the room, their backs against the wall. They all were alright; exhausted and hurt, but alright nonetheless.

"Ah! Shimizu-san!" Shiemi suddenly exclaimed at the sight of the white-haired girl standing on the room's doorway, causing everyone to turn and look at her.

"W... What's up?" Aura said in embarrassment, overwhelmed by the many gazes stuck on her.

Immediately, Suguro's attention turned towards the white-haired girl. "What do you mean 'what's up'?!" he screamed in anger, his loud voice making her flinch in surprise. Aura remained quiet and blinked her wide, grayish blue eyes, unable to understand as to why she was being yelled at. "Seriously, the hell's wrong with you guys?!" Suguro yelled, "Were you trying to get yourselves killed?!"

Aura didn't say anything; instead, a frown took over her face. She then tried to step inside the room, but her legs failed and she fell on her knees. Shima and Konekomaru, who were the closest ones to her, stood up from where they were sitting and rushed towards her, the former helping her up to her feet, and the latter staring at her wounds. "You alright, Aura-chan?" the pink-haired boy asked, and the white-haired girl gave him a nod in response.

"Those wounds look really bad..." Konekomaru commented with concern, his words causing Rin to jump in shock.

"Yeah..." Aura noticed it, the way the half-demon boy's face turned into a sad, guilty one. There was no doubt he still felt bad for the wounds his flames had made on her body, and deep inside, he deeply feared losing her friendship because of it. In all honestly, that was the mere reason why he hadn't apologized for it; he was afraid she'd reject him. "That ghoul was really strong," she said, as she glanced over at the half-demon boy with a soft smile, "I'm sure I would've died if Rin hadn't been there."

Rin's electric blue eyes widened in surprise at her words, and unconsciously, a smile formed onto his lips.

"That's why I told you to stay here with us, you idiot," Suguro growled in annoyance, "Seriously... I thought you were smart, but you're almost as stupid as Okumura!"

"Oi!" Rin jumped at the sudden mention of his name, and glared at the boy with the blonde streak. "I ain't stupid!"

And so, a heated argument quickly ensued. Just like the rest of her classmates, Aura was staring at the show the two boys were inadvertently putting on, when she suddenly heard the soft voice of a certain blonde girl pronouncing her name, "Shimizu-san?" She turned to see Shiemi standing at her side, looking at her with worried, lively green eyes. "L... Let..." She tried to start, and when she gathered enough courage to speak, she finally said it, "Let me help you with your wounds!"

Aura blinked. "Huh?"

Shiemi took her confusion as a yes, and quickly dragged her towards the back of the room, where Izumo was sitting. "P**–**Please lie down here!" she said, pointing at the wooden floor with her index finger. Aura, who was still puzzled, simply nodded and did as the blonde girl told her. "Nii-chan," Shiemi called her small familiar, who was sitting on top of her head, "Can you bring out Sancho-san?" The green man chirped, and leaves of aloe suddenly started to grow from its little body. "Thanks, Nii-chan!"

_"Why is Moriyama-san so nice...?"_ Aura thought in confusion, as the blonde girl treated her wounds, placing aloe on them. Shiemi was always warm and kind towards others, and there was soothing air about her that people seemed to like. She was like a spring flower; lively, pretty and fragant. Shiemi was one of these persons nobody can hate; the kind of girl boys seem to love **–** and to be honest, it made her jealous. Certainly, being loved or popular wasn't of her interest; she just wanted to be liked by just one person, after all.

"It's done!" Shiemi smiled happily after finishing with the treatment, "Now don't move, okay?"

Aura gave the blonde girl a nod. "Thank you, Moriyama-san," she said weakly, truly grateful for the treatment. The aloe felt surprisingly good on her wounds; the cool, damp sensation against her burned skin made the soreness of her mistreated body dissapear away, and it relaxed her to the point she started to doze off. Her vision got blurry and her eyelids got heavy, and at some point, she finally closed her eyes, allowing herself a little rest.

_"D... Did she just fall asleep...?"_ Izumo thought, staring at the exhausted white-haired girl as she took a rest. Her crimson red eyes then started to travel through the asleep girl's body, and she couldn't help but feel alarmed at the severity of her wounds. _"This girl..."_ Paku, her best friend, had almost lost her life due to a single spirit wound on her arm, but Aura, on the other hand, had survived despite the fact her body was full of them. It shocked Izumo to no end, and certainly, she found no explanation as to how the white-haired girl was still alive. _"Just... what is she?"_

Suddenly, the room's only door opened, and everyone turned to see Yukio entering the room. "What am I seeing...?" he said, surprise across his face.

"Ah, Yukio!" Rin exclaimed at the sight of his younger brother, "Where were—" He got cut off when he saw a certain man stepping inside the room, and his electric blue eyes shot open at the realisation that it was none else than Neuhaus. _"Him?!"_ Rin thought, instinctively making a step back. "Yu... Yukio! He's an ene—"

Out of the blue, Mephisto jumped down from the ceiling, landing one of his expensive, red boots on Rin's back and pinning him to the ground. "Oh my, excuse me," he apologized, although he simply kept standing on the half-demon boy. "Alright~ Thanks for all the hard work, you pages," he spoke with that usual cheerful voice of his, as everyone stared at him in shock.

Konekomaru was the first one to break the silence, "... Isn't that the principal...?"

"What's he doing here...?" Suguro asked, staring bewildered at the purple-haired demon.

"Of course, there was a reason why I, the chairman, would allow the invasion of upper-class demons," Mephisto said, and after he snapped his fingers, exorcists suddenly started to came out from where they were hiding. The floor, the closets, the ceiling; they had been hiding all around the room, yet nobody had noticed their presences until that moment. "Doctors, please tend to the wounded," he said, and the exorcists who possessed that title did as they were told.

The room went silent for a moment, all the students staring at the demon principal in complete shock.

"Surprise~! This training camp has also served a purpose as the exorcist authorization exam!" Mephisto announced, joy present on his voice, "While you were lodging together, I posted these teachers everywhere to act as judges. Afterwards I'll read the teacher's reports, and make my final decision about who has passed the exam," he paused a bit, and with a wink, he added, "Please look forward to tomorrow's announcement!"

Yukio, who was one of the doctors, kneeled in front of Aura, who was sleeping soundly. _"Those... aren't ghoul type wounds,"_ he noted, noticing some of the burns on her pale skin looked rather serious for a girl like her to handle. The treatment Shiemi had given her seemed to be appropiate, hence Yukio had nothing else to do than giving her an injection. When he grabbed her arm, though, his turquoise eyes shot open, and the shock of what he felt made him almost drop the syringe he was holding. She was cold; ice cold, like a corpse.

"Yuki-chan...?" Shiemi mumbled in confusion, as she stared at the young teacher, whose facial expression was filled with concern.

Quickly, he placed a finger on her neck and checked her pulse, and as soon as he felt a weak heartbeat, he let out a relieved sigh. She was still alive; her skin was incredibly cold, and her breathing was quite faint, but she was alive nonetheless. Yukio then lifted her, intending to carry her towards the dorm's infirmary so that she could take the rest she needed. From his medical point of view, she had been pretty lucky; she would have died long time ago if she hadn't been partly a demon, after all.

**.**

**.**

**.**

"Should we wake her up?" a familiar voice – presumably Suguro's – asked, "Shimizu's been sleeping for ages."

"Don't!" another familiar voice – which she assumed to be Shima's – spoke, "Aura-chan is so cute when she's asleep~"

"Ah! Look!" a loud voice – which undoubtedly was Rin's – thundered on her ears, "She's waking up!"

Aura protested gently as her sleep had been disturbed, and very slowly, fluttered her eyes open to see what was going on around her. When her blurry vision finally cleared, she saw that a certain dark-haired, half-demon boy was staring at her, his electric blue eyes wide. Startled, she immediately jumped and sat on the bed, accidentally headbutting Rin on the process and making him fall back towards the floor. She then fell backwards on the bed, suddenly feeling dizzy due to the impact. "Ow..."

"W–Why the hell did you do that?!" Rin yelped, standing on his feet while caressing his sore forehead. "That hurt!"

Aura would have yelled at the half-demon boy back, but in all honestly, she wasn't in the mood of arguing. She felt weak and had a painful headache, not only because of the headbutt she had delivered an instant ago, but also because of the poor condition of her body. Slowly, she leaned forward and sat on the bed, observing the whole room and realising her classmates were there. "Huh...?" All of them had IV drips attached to their arms, and when she looked down at her own arm, she realised she was no exception. Rin was the only one who seemed not to need one, although that didn't really surprise her. "W... What's going on here...?" she asked in confusion, wondering what had happened during all the time she had been asleep.

"We're at the dorm's infirmary," Suguro explained at the puzzled white-haired girl, "You passed out, so Okumura-sensei carried you all the way here."

"... Ah, that's right," Aura said, recalling that she had fallen asleep right after Shiemi gave her treatment. "Anyway... What were you guys talking about?"

"About the exam," Suguro replied, and the white-haired girl's face twisted into a confused frown.

"She doesn't know about it," Izumo cut in, "She was already unconscious when the principal arrived." She then turned to look at the white-haired girl, and proceeded to explain everything to her, "The training camp was actually our exwire exam. The teachers were watching us and testing our qualities for exwire in a real battle situation, and the principal will decide about who had passed the exam according their reports about us."

"R... Really...?" Aura said, staring at the pig-tailed girl in disbelief. _"So it was only an exam..."_ she thought, feeling relieved. _"That means... Rin wasn't actually in danger. Neuhaus-sensei... didn't want to kill Rin... right?"_ For some strange reason, she had the feeling that wasn't the case, and uneasiness filled her once again._ "No..."_ A memory suddenly flashed through her mind; a memory of the magic circles teacher's glare piercing holes into the demon boy. _"Neuhaus-sensei... does want to kill Rin."_ Neuhaus actually despised Rin; she could tell by the hatred and contempt she sensed from his gaze.

Rin didn't overlook the worried frown the white-haired girl was wearing across her face – which he wrongly assumed it was due anxiety for the exam results – and decided to try to cheer her up. "Relax!" he grinned, and sat on the edge of the bed where she was lying, "You'll pass for sure!"

Aura blinked, and remained quiet for a moment. "I don't think so," she muttered in shame, "I... really didn't do anything..."

"You'll be fine," Suguro said, and the white-haired girl turned to look at him bewildered, "After all, you were the only one of us that went to help Okumura."

"Bon's right, Shimizu-san," Konekomaru smiled at her, "You and Okumura-kun were really brave..."

Aura didn't realise it, but her lips curved into a soft, warm smile. "Thank you..."

**.**

**.**

**.**

After long hours of sleeping soundly, Aura woke up feeling something quite heavy on her legs. Tiredly, she opened her eyes and leaned forward on the bed to see whatever was bothering her sleep, and a frown took over her face when she saw a certain half-demon boy sleeping across her legs while snoring rather loudly. "Rin," she muttered as she poked his cheek, but still, he didn't wake up; instead, he mumbled something she couldn't catch, and simply kept on sleeping. A giggle escaped her lips as she stared at his silly sleeping face, her soft voice ringing in his ears and finally waking him up.

When Rin opened his eyes and saw the white-haired girl's face close to his own, he immediately jumped in startle and nearly fell off from the bed. "D... Don't just pop up like that!"

Aura raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't fall asleep on top of me then," she said, and the dark-haired boy's eyes fell in embarrassment, "Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"I... huh... I just wanted to wait till you woke up," Rin grinned awkwardly, as he scratched his cheek and avoided to look straight at the white-haired girl's face. His electric blue eyes were downcast, but she could feel he was actually observing her – or rather, her wounds. "Do they hurt?" he suddenly asked, still avoiding to make eye-contact with her, "Your burns, I mean..."

Aura remained silent. It was clear to her Rin still felt guilty for what had happened, and even though he seemed to be trying to hide it, he looked down and depressed. Guilt stabbed her right in the gut; she knew it was her fault Rin was feeling this way, and the fact she couldn't do anything to remedy it only made her feel worse. "Not really," was all she said, and the half-demon boy finally looked up at her.

"Quit lying already," Rin almost growled, genuinely annoyed at the fact she was pretending to be strong. No words came out from the white-haired girl's mouth; only a tired, almost annoyed sigh. She then reached out to his face and grabbed one of his cheeks, pulling it pretty roughly. "W... What was that for?!" he cried, frowning and rubbing his now sore face.

"Stop looking down on me already, will you?" Aura demanded, sounding quite annoyed. Rin, on his part, didn't say anything; he simply stared at her, pretty shocked at her sudden anger. "Just because those flames of yours burned me a little doesn't mean I'm done for, you dumbass. I'll heal in no time, and I'll be alright again. I'm stronger than I look, so stop treating me like a weakling!" she paused, and her facial expression softened, turning into a gloomy one. Her gaze then fell down, and she balled up her fists as an attempt to supress her irritation. "I'm... okay. I'm okay, so... please, go back to your usual self. I like it more when you're happy."

Rin just stared at the half-demon girl in shock, almost as though he couldn't believe those words had come from her mouth. He was quite surprised, but at the same time, immensely relieved. "Dummy," he chuckled, as he poked her forehead, making the white-haired girl to shut her eyes and tilt back slightly. As she stared at him with wide, confused eyes, he gave her a toothy, cheerful grin. "Thank you."

At that instant, her heart suddenly skipped a beat. That was when she discovered hidden feelings she was sure she didn't have; feelings she used to consider as pointless and bothersome. In all her fifteen years of life, she had never had someone to love, let alone friends to care of – so to her, a girl who had never felt anything towards anyone, the thin line between love and friendship was slowly becoming fuzzy.

"Rin," Aura broke the silence, and the alluded one looked at her curiously. "I'm... really glad I could meet you." As she spoke, Rin noticed a strange air about the white-haired girl, something soft and strangely heart-warming. Her grayish blue eyes were unusually shiny and bright, and her cheeks had flushed slightly. "I..." she paused, but then forced herself to finish, "I like you."

Rin froze, trying to register what he had heard. "Eh...?" It took him a while to process what she had meant, but when he did, his electric blue eyes widened, and his face heated up at realising he had just been confessed to.

* * *

**A/N: As I always say, thank you so much for all the support guys! I love you all~ /hugs.**

******On a side note... this story might go on hiatus for a while. I'm starting school tomorrow (_DONOTWANTSOMEONEPLEASESAVEME_) plus I lack motivation, so... yeah. ************You guys already know I'm a review whore, so please leave me some /shot.**


	14. DREAM

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

The atmosphere in the room had suddenly become tense, and the silence felt so thick to the point it was crushing. Rin was agape, staring in disbelief at the white-haired, half-demon girl, who was looking at him with deep, soulful eyes. Rin swallowed hard. He knew she was anxiously waiting for his answer, but to him, responding to a sudden confession wasn't easy. Rin wasn't like his younger twin brother; he wasn't popular with girls, and thus wasn't used to receive love confessions from them. His heart was pounding strongly, his face was flushed and his hands were sweaty; without a doubt, he was nervous – which wasn't surprising considering he had absolutely no idea how to deal with this kind of awkward situation.

"... I'm sorry," Aura's voice suddenly broke the silence between them, "I didn't mean to bother you, but..." she paused, and her gaze fell down, "But... it hurts not to say it."

"Ah... You know..." Rin said, as he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "I..." when he realised the pale girl's grayish blue eyes were glued on him, he jumped and glanced away, the blush on his face deepening, "I like you too, but..." there was a pause, and as soon as he gathered enough courage, he continued, "But not like that." After saying such words, his gaze immediately went downcast, and he couldn't bring himself to look straight at her. He then shut his eyes tightly, hoping his response hadn't been too painful for her to handle.

A deep silence followed, until a single word escaped Aura's lips, "... Okay."

After hearing her empty response, Rin lifted up his sight to see her face, and much to his surprise, found no signs of either sadness or anger on her features. Aura was simply staring at him, her facial expression blank, if not emotionless. Her grayish blue eyes had lost their shine, and the blush on her face was no longer present. "Aura...?"

"It's okay," Aura said, her voice displaying no traces of any kind of emotion, "I wasn't expecting you to return my feelings anyway."

Rin was in shock, because honestly, he wasn't expecting her to react in such a cold, indifferent way. Truthfully, he had no experience when it came to love, but even so, there was something he was sure of: rejection always hurt, and it was something extremely hard to endure and overcome. Aura didn't seem to feel sad in the slightest, though. No tears slided down from her eyes, no sobs came out of her mouth, and absolutely no feelings could be seen on her face. It almost seemed as though she didn't care at all.

"Rin?" Aura suddenly said, causing the alluded boy to snap out of his trance. "You okay...?" she asked at the gloomy look on his face, "You look troubled."

"... I'm sorry," Rin said in a whisper, earning himself a puzzled look from the white-haired girl.

"... You don't need to apologize, moron," Aura said, furrowing her eyebrows. Love couldn't be forced, and she – even though she was a complete novice when it came to feelings and emotions – was aware of it. She knew from the beginning Rin's feelings weren't the same as hers, but still, she wanted to tell him how she felt. Keeping it to herself was starting to harm her, after all. "Come on... Stop making such a sad face," she smiled weakly, trying to cheer him up, "I told you that I liked it more when you're happy, didn't I?"

"Yeah..." he mumbled, as he forced a smile to his face, covering how he actually felt.

**.**

**.**

**.**

It had been nearly two hours since the dark-haired, half-demon boy had left the infirmary to let her rest, and even though she was extremely tired, she couldn't get to sleep.

_"Rin..."_ Aura thought, her eyes glued on the room's neglected ceiling. Needless to say, she felt depressed, not because she had been rejected – although that did hurt her – but because she had made Rin feel bad about himself. She was aware that he was the kind of person who didn't want to hurt others, and she could tell he felt guilty for rejecting her.

Aura was sure the friendship she shared with Rin wouldn't be the same after what she had done, and to be honest, she repented having confessed to him. _"The next time I see Rin... I'll tell him I take everything back." _Her heart hurt; it hurt a lot because she still liked him, but she knew she had to take her words back if she didn't want to lose his friendship. She truly treasured Rin, and losing him because she had gotten carried away with her feelings was something she couldn't allow to happen.

_"I like Rin,"_ Aura innerly told herself, feeling strong once again, _"That's why I'll stay by his side... even if he doesn't like me."_

**.**

**.**

**.**

_"Something doesn't feel right..."_ Yukio thought in concern, as he headed towards the room that he and his older brother shared. About half an hour earlier, he was at the academy's exorcist shop with Shiemi, but he suddenly started to have a bad feeling about a certain one of the teachers. He had a strong hunch his older brother was in danger and was on his way to check on him, when he suddenly saw someone at the distance. "S... Shimizu-san?!" he exclaimed in shock at the sight of the white-haired girl, who was sitting on the floor, with her back against his and his brother's room.

Aura jumped in startle and turned defensively at Yukio, but relaxed right away and sighed with ease. "Ah... It was you, Yukio-kun..."

"What are you doing here?" Yukio asked as he kneeled in front of her, truly shocked at the fact she still had enough strenght to move around on her own despite the many wounds she had. She really looked exhausted; she had bags under her eyes, and there was a feverish blush adorning her cheeks. "You should be resting in bed, Shimizu-san," he said, almost scolding her.

"I know, it's just... I'm worried about Rin..." Aura's voice trailed off, as she wasn't sure if Yukio would believe her if she told him what she thought. "You know, Yukio-kun, I..." she hesitated a bit, but then, she decided it was best to tell him about it. After all, unlike her, Yukio could protect Rin. "I have a bad feeling. Neuhaus-sensei... He's planning to kill Rin... and I think he's going to do something today. I'm sure of it," as she spoke, her voice became more and more frustrated, "I'm... I'm weak and I can't do anything, so... please trust me and protect Rin from him! N... Neuhaus-sensei is—"

"Don't worry," Yukio smiled, and patted her shoulder as an attempt to calm her down. "I have a bad feeling about Neuhaus-sensei, too," he said, his facial expression turning serious, "I have a plan to protect Nii-san, so don't worry. Just go to your room and have the rest you need, okay?"

Aura frowned. "No way," she protested in annoyance, "I want to protect Rin, too."

Yukio frowned back, her stubborn attitude reminding him of his own brother. "If you keep forcing yourself like this, your body won't be able to keep up with you, Shimizu-san," he said, this time truly scolding her, "You need to have plenty of rest, or else, your body will break down and suffer serious consequences. Do you understand?"

Aura gave a small pout. "Let me help you at least with something small," she insisted, "Please."

Yukio stared at her for a moment, and then let out an exhausted sigh. "Okay," he finally agreed, and the white-haired girl's face lightened up. "Come on," he said, and then stood up from where he was kneeling and stretched out his hand, helping her to stand up on her feet, "I'll make Neuhaus-sensei believe Nii-san is sleeping in our room, and I'll catch him off guard when he comes to attack him. I want you to hide with Nii-san in another room while I deal with Neuhaus-sensei, understood?"

"Understood," Aura responded, as she gave him a nod.

"Yuki-chan!" a feminine voice suddenly rang in their ears, and they turned to see a certain blonde girl rushing towards them.

"Shiemi-san?" Yukio said, surprised at the sight of the blonde girl, "What are you doing here?"

Aura remained quiet, her grayish blue eyes wide._ "Yuki... chan?"_ she thought bewildered, wondering what kind of relationship Yukio and Shiemi had.

**.**

**.**

**.**

Rin smiled in his sleep, drooling onto his shirt and cuddling his pillow close to his chest. He felt strangely calm and comfortable, probably because during his sleep, he could forget reality, or rather, everything that troubled him. As he slowly woke up, the first thing he noticed was that the cushion of his bed felt extremely stiff, almost as though he were lying on the floor. He then noticed a few odd things about his pillow; it was strangely cold, plus he felt as though he were touching soft, thin hair. Slowly, he fluttered his electric blue eyes open, and when his vision cleared, he automatically jumped and sat up. "W... Wha... Aura?!" he yelled in embarrassment, his face flushed at realising he had been embracing the white-haired girl the whole time. "What are you doing here?!"

Shiemi immediately shushed him, and the dark-haired boy turned to look at her bewildered. "You didn't wake up at all... so Yuki-chan and Shimizu-san carried you to a different room!" she explained, muttering, "Shimizu-san was tired so she fell asleep right away... but she said we should stay here no matter what. Yuki-chan said so as well, but... I wonder what's happening...?"

An instant later, loud gunshots echoed in the whole room, waking up the white-haired girl and making the other two jump in startle. Rin quickly stood up from where he was lying, but even before he could rush to help his brother, a cold hand grabbed his own. "Rin," Aura said, and the half-demon boy jerked his head to look at her, "Yukio-kun... is fighting Neuhaus-sensei right now. Neuhaus-sensei came to kill you tonight, so... be careful. He's prepared." Rin gave her a nod, and as soon as she let go of his hand, he rushed forwards. "I'm sorry..." she muttered to herself, feeling utterly useless, "I... couldn't be of any help."

"Shimizu-san?" Shiemi asked in worry, realising the white-haired girl seemed to be about to pass out, "Are you okay?"

Aura nodded. "I'm... just a little dizzy," she said, as she slowly stood on her feet, her legs shaking slightly. _"I have to help Rin,"_ a voice kept echoing on her head, _"I have to protect Rin!"_ She wanted to fight by his side, but she knew she couldn't, so she tried her best to suppress her thoughts. _"I have to help Yukio-kun to fight!"_ Unconsciously, she started to clench her fists. _"Or else... Rin will—"_

"Shimizu-san," Shiemi's soft voice suddenly cut off her trail of thought. "D... Don't worry about Rin and Yuki-chan!" she cheered, her voice sounding full of confidence, "They're really strong!"

Aura's lips curved into a weak smile. "I know..."

**.**

**.**

**.**

Twenty minutes had passed, and it seemed like things were finally starting to calm down. Absolutely no sounds could be heard anymore, and the old male dormitory was filled with silence once again. "I wonder if Rin and Yuki-chan are alright..." Shiemi mumbled to herself, concern present on her voice. She knew the twins were pretty strong, but still, she couldn't help but feel worried about them.

"Let's go check," Aura said, as she stood up from where she was sitting, and the blonde girl gave her a nod.

The two girls quickly rushed towards the dorm's stairs as they were sure Rin and Yukio were on the roof, and as they were going up the stairs, they suddenly spotted someone at the distance. "Neuhaus-sensei!" Shiemi exclaimed in surprise at the sight of the teacher, while the white-haired girl stared at him in shock.

Neuhaus looked exhausted; he was panting heavily, and both his arms were covered in blood dripping wounds. "I'm fine," he said, "Leave me alone." Shiemi stared at the teacher with hesitation, but then, she nodded and continued her way, anxious to see if the twins were safe. Aura, on her part, remained quiet, as her eyes cautiously followed the teacher as he went down the stairs. "What are you looking at?" he suddenly growled, as he stopped walking and turned around to face the white-haired girl.

Neuhaus looked quite enraged, which lead Aura to the conclusion he hadn't fulfilled his goal of killing the half-demon boy. "Why do you want to kill Rin?" she asked boldly, but received no answer from her teacher. She had a hypothesis about it, though. "If it's for revenge against Satan, then it's pointless," she said, her words causing the teacher to jump in shock and confirming her hunch, "Rin is not at fault. He didn't choose to be the son of Satan, so don't go blaming him for it," she paused a bit, "You're aiming your revenge at the wrong person, Neuhaus-sensei."

Neuhaus clenched his teeth in anger as a fierce glare took over his face. Truthfully, he would have disobeyed the principal's orders and killed the white-haired, half-demon girl right there if he hadn't been so tired and hurt. "As if a filthy demon like you could understand," he growled under his breath, as he turned around and went his way down the stairs.

Aura frowned in annoyance. "Pathetic," she muttered, as she turned around and resumed her way. She couldn't stand it, how judgmental and hateful humans were. Prejudices, contempt and senseless hate; those unlucky ones who had demon blood running through their veins were doomed to endure the rejection from humankind, and there was nothing they could do about it. She knew about it; after all, she had the pleasure to experience it personally. She couldn't help but feel bad for Rin; after all, she knew the hardships he would have to endure were immensely worse than the ones she had to overcome during her childhood. That was the reason as to why she had decided she would stay by his side, though.

Aura was about to step out to the roof terrace, but she then saw something that made her make a step back. She remained quiet, peeping from behind the door at Rin, who was grinning awkwardly as Shiemi treated a wound he had on his belly._ "Eh... I guess I can't win against Moriyama-san,"_ she thought, losing the tiny bit of hope she had deep within herself. Shiemi was cute and warm, whereas she was cold and dry. It wasn't much of a shocker that Rin would like a radiant girl like Shiemi better than gloomy girl her.

A sigh escaped her lips. "Well... I guess there's no helping it," she mumbled to herself, as she turned around to return to her room.

**.**

**.**

**.**

_It was early in the morning, and they both were staring at the bright dawn breaking in the sky. She was sitting next to him on the front steps of his home, her eyes closed and her head resting on his shoulder. He, on the other hand, was simply staring ahead, feeling at ease by her mere presence. The ripped skin of his fingers bled and stung, but he was used to this kind of pain. It wasn't the first time he had punched someone, after all. Besides, he couldn't bring himself to complain about it; he knew the white-haired girl that was next to him didn't like him getting into fights, and he didn't want her to notice._

_"You got into another fight, huh?" her voice suddenly rang in his ears, making him flinch, "Weren't you supposed to be working?"_

_"I... huh..." he mumbled awkwardly, as he scratched his cheek and avoided to meet her grayish blue eyes. Indeed, he was supposed to be working; after all, he had finally found a part-time job he thought he could handle. Being a delivery boy sounded pretty easy to him; all he had to do was ride his bike around and deliver newspapers during the early hours of the morning, and even though getting up early wasn't his forte, it was something he could handle. Everything was going alright, but of course, good things never last. It almost seemed as if fate wanted him to get into a fight and ruin everything.  
_

_An exhausted sigh escaped her lips. "Fujimoto-san will be really dissapointed of you if you keep this up, you know?" she said, slightly scolding him._

_A frown took over his face as she spoke. "I know, __I'm not stupid,_" he replied, as he glared down at his injured fists, "I'm..._ worried__ about it, too._"

_Her features saddened a bit; she didn't want him to feel troubled, after all. "Cheer up, Rin__!__" she said, as she turned and gave him a bright smile, "You just have to find the right job!" He looked at her with dubious eyes, wondering why someone like her was putting up with him. She was smart, had good grades and even had a part-time job, hence he couldn't help but feel useless next to a clever, diligent girl like her. "I know! Maybe you could work at the mall I work at? __It's near here, plus we could see each other everyday..." she paused a bit, and looked into his electric blue eyes,_ "What do you think?"

_Before replying, Rin encased her shoulders with his arm and pulled her close to his side, making a giggle escape her lips. "How come you always solve everything?" he grinned, although he truly was curious as to how she always had the solution to his problems. "It ain't fair! Let me help you at least once!" His voice sounded cheerful and playful, but deep down, he actually meant what he said. He seriously wanted to help her, because he didn't want to be a drag to her. "... Hey," he started, his voice sounding suddenly frustrated, which made the girl look at him with confusion, "Why... are you going out with someone like me?"  
_

_She blinked. "Because I love you, dummy," was her instant response._

_"No, I mean..." his voice trailed off, and his gaze fell to the ground. Unconsciously, he started to clench his fists, too. "You can aim much higher." She frowned and looked at him bemused, but she didn't interrupt him; she wanted to listen to what he had to say. "You're smart; you can go to a good college if you want to... You can get a good job and make a lot of money, too," he paused a bit, and turned to look at her with seriousness, "You do realise I can't do that, right? I don't have good grades, and __I can't handle a decent job... I know myself that well," he said, and then added, "Why... would you stuck with someone like me?_"  


_No words came out from her mouth; she simply remained quiet, turned to look at him and slapped him lightly. It wasn't hard enough to hurt him, but it was effective to catch his attention. "Stop belittling yourself already. It pisses me off," she said, an angry frown across her face. "You're amazing, Rin. You're strong and caring... and you always come when I need you the most," she said, trying to make him realise how much she treasured him, "I... could never ask for a better boyfriend, really."_

_Rin blushed and glanced away, suppressing a smile caused by her words. "T... Thanks," he mumbled in embarrassment, as he scratched his cheek._

At that instant, Aura's eyes shot open. _"A dream...?"_ she thought in shock, her heart beating fast as though it were trying to escape her chest.

The morning scenery around her, the chilly wind blowing on her pale skin, and the warm, cozy feeling of being close to Rin; everything had felt extremely real, and certainly, she couldn't believe it had been only a dream. However, despite how realistic her dream had felt, there were a few odd things about it that bothered her – such as the fact she had been nothing else than an observer. The whole time she had been simply watching everything; how the couple chatted as they sat at the front steps of the entrance to a church.

_"Rin... looked happy,"_ Aura thought, wondering if in her dream, that girl next to him was the source of his happiness.

Aura was almost sure the girl was none other than herself, but still, she had her doubts about it. The girl had snow white hair that reached past her chest, and unlike hers, it was styled; she had a pair of black ribbons on both her long side bangs. Also, their eyes shared the same tone of blue, but the shine on the girl's eyes was a lot more radiant and cheerful than hers. Finally, the girl was wearing a mostly black uniform – something that Aura had never worn, being that she had never attended school before enrolling True Cross Academy.

Their appearances were pretty similar, but that wasn't the only reason why Aura thought she and that girl were the same person. Actually, during the dream, she had felt as though she were on the girl's shoes. Her emotions, her thoughts, and the way she leaned against the dark-haired boy; everything the girl had felt, Aura had felt it too, despite the fact she had been an observer standing at the distance the whole time.

That wasn't the only weird thing, though; there was something else bothering her. _"Rin and I..."_ During the whole dream, Rin looked like an ordinary human. His sharp teeth and his pointed ears; his demonic features – or at least the visible ones – were completely gone, almost as though his demon heritage had vanished away. The girl next to him – who Aura assumed to be herself – looked like a normal human as well, and showed no signs of being a half-demon either.

As she dwelled on the vivid memories of what she had dreamed, she suddenly remembered something that caught her attention. She recalled the girl – or rather, herself – mentioning a certain name that sounded strangely familiar to her. _"Fujimoto-san...?"_ she thought, frowning in confusion, _"Who's that...?"_

Exhausted from thinking, she closed her eyes and rolled on her bed. _"Whatever,"_ she thought, giving up at trying to find it a meaning. It had been just a dream; something nonsensical her head had made up, and she knew it was pointless to try to understand something that made no sense to begin with. Besides, she had been rejected not so long ago, so it was natural for her to unconsciously dream things to cheer herself up. Honestly, she was sad, and even though she would never admit it, her heart was deeply hurt, and it ached quite a lot. _"I'm... such an idiot."_

**.**

**.**

**.**

"Eins... Zwei... Drei~!" Mephisto sang cheerfully, and colorful confetti suddenly started to rain down in the classroom, "Everyone is promoted to exwire! Congratulations~!"

Some of the students immediately started to cheer on with enthusiasm, while others simply let out a sigh of relief. Aura, on her part, didn't do anything in particular; she simply remained quiet, almost as though she had no feeling in the matter. Rin, who was pretty happy about the news, suddenly grew aware of the white-haired girl's lack of joy, and his mood instantly fell down.

"Well then, to celebrate everyone's promotion..." Mephisto said, and the student's ears perked up, "I, the chairman, will..." he paused to add suspense, "Treat you to monja!"

"Monja?!" Suguro yelled in dissapointment, speaking for everyone else, "At least treat us some yakiniku!"

**.**

**.**

**.**

Everyone was celebrating in ecstasy, cooking and eating monjayaki at one of the many shops of the academy. Aura wasn't in the mood to celebrate, though, and no matter how much she attempted to join the rest of her classmates, she simply couldn't. She wasn't happy in the slightest, and honestly, the warm, joyful atmosphere filling the whole place was crushing her.

"Huh? Shimizu?" Suguro perked up when he saw the white-haired girl standing up from her seat, "Where are you going?"

"Huh... I'll go outside for while. I need a bit of fresh air," Aura replied as naturally as she could, yet her classmates seemed not to buy her excuse. She didn't want more questions, so even before anyone could ask her anything, she quickly rushed outside the shop, earning herself confused looks from everyone.

"Oi, Okumura," Suguro called, and the alluded one looked at him, "What's wrong with Shimizu?" he asked, and the half-demon boy tensed up, "Did something happen?"

"W... Why are you asking me?" Rin said, obviously tense as he pretty much had an idea of what was happening to the white-haired girl.

"Well, you're the closest to Shimizu-san, aren't you, Okumura-kun?" Shima commented carefreely, not realising he was inadvertently touching a delicate matter.

Rin didn't say anything; his electric blue eyes went downcast, and his fists balled up. "Rin...?" Shiemi asked in concern, not overlooking the boy's sudden change of mood.

Meanwhile, outside the shop, the white-haired girl was overhearing a conversation. "I apologise for Neuhaus-sensei's behaviour," Mephisto said, although his voice didn't really imply he actually felt sorry, "I never thought he'd act with his own personal interest at heart..." the demon paused a bit, and looked up at Yukio, "I'll make sure he doesn't do it in future." The young exorcist seemed not to trust the principal's words, but still, he nodded and quietly returned to the shop.

_"Mephisto-san..."_ Aura thought with suspicion, not buying the principal's words either, _"Was he... behind all this?"_

"Is there anything I can do for you, Aura-chan?" Mephisto suddenly asked, causing the white-haired girl to jump in startle.

"A... Actually, I've been meaning to ask you something," Aura said, and the principal jerked his head and looked at her with interest.

"Oh, what could it be~?" Mephisto asked, and the white-haired girl took a deep breath, preparing herself to confront him.

"You're... planning something with Rin, aren't you?" Aura asked, quite boldly. "W... What are you scheming, Mephisto-san?"

A wide, malicious smirk took over Mephisto's lips. "Come now, if I tell you, I'd totally ruin the surprise, wouldn't I?" he said, his voice sounding amused. "I'll only tell you this," he paused a bit, and looked at her with those mischievous, forest green eyes of his, "There's no need for you to worry about Okumura Rin-kun. If anything, you should be worrying about yourself," Aura looked at the purple-haired demon with confusion, but she felt his words as threatening, hence she didn't dare to say anything. "Oh yes, since I'm talking about this, shall I give you a hint about your future?"

"About... my future?" Aura mumbled in confusion, as she stared at the principal with wide, grayish blue eyes.

"If someone is going to kill Okumura Rin-kun, that's most likely to be none other than you, Aura-chan," Mephisto said, and the half-demon girl stared at him with a mixture of confusion, shock and disbelief, "You appear to desire to protect him, but have you ever considered that you might actually be the biggest threat for him out there?" Aura didn't say anything; she had lost all her words all of sudden. "You seem to be blinded by that feeling humans call love, but are you sure that's what you feel?" he smirked amusedly at sensing the white-haired girl's fear and nervousness, "Are you sure... you're not longing something else from Okumura Rin?"

* * *

**A/N: UPDATEEE /shot.  
**

**Thanks to TheVampireBunny, RomanceDagger, LeCheshireKatt, voidblade6, SavageTrickster, Elhijueputa, Senna Bluefire, Someone, Melissa Fairy and werepirechick for the lovely reviews! They mean the world to me, really! /hugs forever. Ah! This story will follow the manga storyline. I know it's complicated since the manga it's still on going, but I already have an ending planned... All I have to do is decide in which point of the manga I'll end it. WELL! I hope you liked this chapter (_It's the longest one I've ever written... almost 5000 words, omg_) and thank you for reading!**


	15. Attraction

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

It had been a few days since she had been rejected, and finally, the soreness on her chest was finally starting to dissapear.

Right at that moment, she was sitting under one of the many trees on the academy's large courtyard, having lunch without anyone's company. For some reason, she felt strangely lonely; she had been alone for years, but it seemed like the feeling of loneliness felt a lot stronger now that the dark-haired, half-demon boy was avoiding her. "_Rin..._" On her eyes, everything looked gray and dull, almost as though the world had suddenly lost all its charm and beauty. "_What am I so dissapointed for...? It's not like he could like someone like me anyway..._"

Aura was about to take a bite of her onigiri, when a voice suddenly rang in her ears, "Shimizu-san?"

The sudden shock made her drop the onigiri, and she lifted up her gaze to see a familiar short-haired, brunette girl, "P... Paku-san?"

"Ah, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" Paku apologised, kneeling in front of the white-haired girl, "We can share my lunch, if you want..."

"It's okay, don't worry... I wasn't that hungry anyway," Aura said, leaning her back against the tree behind her. "Is something the matter, Paku-san?" she asked with curiosity, wondering why the brunette girl had approached her all of a sudden. "Want me to lend you my notes?"

Paku shook her head. "I noticed you've been looking sad recently, so I wanted to see if you're okay..." she said softly, and the white-haired girl looked at her with surprise on her face. "I'm sorry I didn't ask you earlier even though we're in the same class, but... I just didn't want to bother you." Aura didn't say anything; she simply stared at her, truly bewildered. "Izumo-chan told me you and Okumura-kun look down during cram school classes as well, so..." she paused a bit, and then asked, "Did something happen between you two?"

Aura's gaze fell down, the pain on her chest suddenly growing stronger. "I..." she tried to start, but for some reason, she found no strength to speak.

"If you want to say something, then say it already," a familiar voice suddenly attracted the attention of the two girls, and when they lifted up their gazes, they saw a certain pig-tailed, purple-haired girl approaching them. When she was close enough, she sat near them, and turned to look at Aura with those deep, crimson red eyes of hers. "You and him really are starting get annoying... Especially you. You barely speak, and you have this depressed look on your face the whole time," Izumo said, wearing an annoyed frown across her face, "Just what's going on with you?

"S... Some days ago..." Aura paused, and as soon as she found enough strength to continue, she said, "I confessed to Rin... and he rejected me."

After hearing the half-demon girl's words, the eyes of the other two girls widened in disbelief.

"He did...?" Paku asked in shock, utterly confused. "Probably Okumura-kun was confused," she said, her words catching the white-haired girl's attention, "I mean, everything was too sudden, wasn't it? I'm sure he wasn't expecting you to confess to him." Aura simply stared at the brunette girl as she spoke, wondering whether she was saying the truth or lying to cheer her up. She wanted to believe Rin actually liked her, but at the same time, she didn't want to delude herself with false hope and impossible dreams. "I think you should give Okumura-kun some time."

Aura blinked, and tilted her head at the side. "Give him... some time?"

Paku nodded. "Yeah, so he can think things up and make a decision."

"... I guess you're right," Aura said as she jumped and stoof on her feet, feeling a lot stronger and livelier, "I'll give Rin time... after I tell him I take my confession back!"

"W... Wait, what?" the two girls asked in unison, as they stared at the white-haired girl running off somewhere.

"I think Shimizu-san didn't get it..." Paku mumbled, a light smile on her lips, "I wonder how things will go between her and Okumura-kun...?"

An annoyed sigh escaped Izumo's mouth. "It'll go well," she said, "They're both idiots. They suit each other."

•

•

"Shima-kun! Suguro-kun! Miwa-kun!" The three alluded boys heard their names being called, and turned around to see Aura rushing towards them at full speed. Shima raised his hand and was about to greet her, but even before a word could escape his mouth, the white-haired girl tripped over her and tackled him to the floor. "S... Sorry...!" she said between heavy pants, as she quickly stood up on her feet, leaving the almost unconscious pink-haired boy lying on the floor. "Have you... Have..." she tried to speak, but she had absolutely no breath left. "Have you... seen Rin?"

"Okumura-kun?" Konekomaru asked, not recalling having seen the dark-haired boy around in all day. "What about you Bon?"

Suguro shook his head as a response. "Come to think of it, Okumura's been acting pretty weird lately..." he commented, "Do you know what's going on with him, Shimizu?"

"... I think I do," Aura replied weakly, her grayish blue eyes downcast, "That's why I'm looking for him. I have... something really important I need to talk about with him." She then turned around to resume her way, and before leaving, she waved her hand at the trio. "See you guys around! If you see Rin, tell him I need to talk with him!" That said, she ran away.

"... Heh... I think I know what's going on here~" Shima snickered amusedly, as he slowly stood up from where he was lying. "I'm so jealous...! Okumura-kun is just too lucky!"

Suguro raised an eyebrow at his pink-haired friend. "The hell are you talking about?" he asked dubiously, "I honestly don't get what's up with Okumura and Shimizu..."

•

•

The rest of the week had passed, and in the end, Aura couldn't talk with Rin not even a single time. It wasn't surprising, though; after all, he undoubtedly was avoiding her.

Sunday arrived, and that day, Aura woke up to the intense heat filling her room. She felt dizzy and feverish, and her usually cold skin was warm to the touch – which didn't surprise her, considering she had never could handle hot temperatures very well. Summer had arrived just a few days ago, and while other people loved this hot season, to her it was nothing else than a bother. Ever since she was a little kid, she would always get sick during summer; she'd get horrible fevers, and she'd felt terribly sick to the point she wouldn't find enough strength to stand up on her feet.

"_... I want a gorigori-kun._" She barely had any energy to move, but she knew that if she wanted to lower her high fever at least a tiny bit, she had to eat something cold – or at least that was what she always did, since she had never consulted doctor. She forced her weak body to move, and slowly, she managed to stand up from her bed. She then changed into the first light clothes she found, grabbed a little money and rushed outside her room with the canteen as her destination.

It took her only a few minutes to arrive, and she couldn't help but frown in annoyance at what she saw in front of her. "... _Damn it._"

Just as usual, the canteen was ridiculously crowded with people. Right at that moment, Aura had to options: the first one being to wait an indeterminate amount of time for her turn, and the second one being to stealthily sneak in and cut in the line, although she doubted her survival if someone happened to notice her. A tired sigh escaped her mouth, her final decision being to get at the end of the line and wait for her turn even if it took ages. "_I... really want a popsicle..._" she thought tiredly, as a sad pout formed on her face.

As she anxiously waited on the line, she suddenly started to hear pounding steps of someone racing towards her, and when she turned around, she saw it was none other than a familiar half-demon boy. "_Rin...?_" she thought, and her heart contracted in her chest. Much to her surprise, it still hurt to see him; she thought suppressing her feelings towards Rin would be rather easy, but it seemed like she was weaker than she expected. "_Damn it... Pull yourself together!_" she told herself, shaking her head, "_I have to tell Rin... I take my confession back._"

"W... Was I late?" he panted tiredly, and when he looked up, he jumped in startle at the sight of a certain someone. Aura, the girl he had rejected not so long ago, was standing right in front of him, looking at him with confusion on her face. "Ah..." He tensed up out of nervousness, and lost all his words all of sudden.

"R–Rare to see you around here, Rin," Aura said, trying to mask the fact she was nervous.

"H... Hey," Rin greeted awkwardly, his voice trailing off at the end.

The two half-demons had no idea what to say to begin a conversation, and inevitably, a deep silence built between them. Flustered, Aura turned around to face the other way, hiding her flushed cheeks from him and trying to hide the fact she was embarrassed. Rin, on his part, remained quiet, taking the opportunity to study her. His electric blue eyes travelled from her head to her toes, her endearing confession echoing inside his mind over and over again.

"_She's cute..._" Rin thought, as a blush creeped its way on his cheeks. Aura looked behind her out of the corner of her eye, and when she noticed that she was being stared at, her face heated up and she quickly turned around. "_She... really is cute..._" As soon as he realised what he was thinking, he immediately shook his head to shake those thoughts away.

"_... I have to tell Rin,_" Aura innerly told herself, trying her best to gather courage, "_I have to tell him I take my confession back._" She knew she had to do it; otherwise, she was sure she would lose his friendship. "Rin," his name escaped her lips, making him jump in startle. She then turned around to see him starting at her, his sapphire blue eyes wide.

"_Why... did I fall in love with Rin?_" Aura wondered, because honestly, she had no idea. Rin was a warm person; she truly enjoyed to be around him, plus he had been her first friend. "_Friend...?_" Suddenly, an idea crossed her mind; maybe she was misunderstanding her own feelings. Maybe her feelings towards Rin weren't of love, but of strong friendship; after all, he had been her very first friend, so there was no doubt he occupied an important place on her heart. "_Maybe... I'm not in love with Rin after all._"

"_Why did I reject her?_" Rin thought, truly confused about it. Truthfully, he wasn't in love with her – but that didn't mean he couldn't fall in love with her. Maybe he should try to date her; that way, he would get to know her a lot better than he already did, plus he thought that spending time with her as boyfriend and girlfriend, not just as friends, would give him a different view on her. He liked her, and honestly, her confession had made him really happy.

"I... wanted to tell you something," Aura said, and the half-demon boy looked at her with expectation. This time he decided he wouldn't reject her; he would give dating her a chance. "I..." she paused a bit, and when she finally gathered enough courage, she continued, "I take my confession back!"

Rin blinked, feeling as though he had been slapped across the face. "Huh...?"

"I... wanted to take my confession back," Aura said, her words shocking the boy to no end. "I was confused... I thought I liked you, but now I realised I just want to be friends with you," she explained with a soft smile across her face, "I... don't want to lose our friendship. I really don't want to, so..." She stretched her hand at him before saying, "Friends?"

Rin stared at her. "_... Friends?_"

Aura blinked, wondering why the dark-haired boy suddenly looked down. "Rin?"

"Ah, sorry... I was spacing out," Rin smiled awkwardly, as he grabbed her hand and shook it. To be honest, he was quite dissapointed, but at the same time, he also was confused. Was he happy because the awkwardness between them was finally over? Or was he upset because he had lost the chance to date her? Certainly, he didn't know. He got distracted from his thoughts when he noticed the expression she was wearing across her face; she was smiling, looking happy and at ease. "W... What?"

"I'm... so glad," Aura said, and a small giggle escaped her lips, "I thought we wouldn't be friends anymore..."

"It wouldn't be that bad if we weren't friends anymore, though..." Rin said under his breath, earning himself a confused look from the white-haired girl. She obviously didn't read between the lines; after all, she had been rejected by him, so she wasn't expecting him to feel anything besides friendship towards her. "_W... What the hell was that?_" he thought in shock, his face heating up at realising the words that had escaped his mouth. "_I..._" he really was confused, and he didn't know what to think anymore, "_Do I like—_"

"Ah, it's our turn!" Aura exclaimed in surprise, cutting off his trail of thought.

"O... Oi!" Rin yelled, following her as she rushed towards the counter. "Wait!"

"_It was so fast..._" Aura thought, smiling to herself, "_Time flies when I'm with Rin._"

•

•

"Ahh... It's so hot!" Rin whined tiredly, feeling the strong sun rays against his tan skin. "Ah! My gorigori-kun is melting!"

After buying what they needed, the two half-demons started to head towards the abandoned dorm in where they resided with grocery bags on their hands. The blue sky was completely cloudless, plus it was already midday, hence the fierce strength of the sun. Because of the intense heat, Aura was feeling even worse than before; she felt weak and dizzy, almost as though she were about to pass out right there. Noticing she was strangely quiet, Rin looked at the white-haired girl out of the corner of his eye, and immediately noticed she wasn't feeling well.

"You alright?" Rin asked before taking a bite of his already melting popsicle.

Aura nodded. "I'm just... a little tired," she said, her voice sounding quite weak.

Rin raised an eyebrow, not really believing her words. He knew what kind of person the white-haired girl was; she would always play strong, trying to hide her weaknesses from others and pretending to be okay when it was obvious she wasn't. Aura's cheeks were colored a feverish red, plus she had dark bags under her tired eyes. It led him to think she probably had a fever, and he confirmed it when he placed his hand on her forehead and felt how hot her skin was. "You're burning up!"

"D–Don't worry," Aura said, flustered at the fact the half-demon boy was touching her, "I'm used to it, r–really! I always get sick during summer!"

"Let's go ask Yukio," Rin said, completely ignoring her words. He then took her hand and dragged her, making her sped up as they rushed towards the dorm.

•

•

"Welcome back," Yukio said, lifting up his turquoise gaze from his paperwork and turning to look at his brother's direction. "Ah, hello, Shimizu-san," he saw the half-demon girl standing next to his older brother, and greeted her with a gentle smile. Aura greeted him back with a quick nod, and by simply looking at her, Yukio instantly noticed she wasn't in good shape. He assumed the spirit wounds she had received a few days ago were making her feel sick, but he then discarded the idea when he noticed most of them were almost healed.

"Aura's feeling sick," Rin's voice suddenly interrupted the young exorcist's thoughts, "Can you help her?"

"I'm not feeling sick!" Aura said, a frown on her features, "I'm okay, really! I'm just tired!"

Yukio placed his hand on his chin, trying to figure out what could be making her sick. Aura had received a great number of wounds from ghoul type demons, and even though they seemed to be healing well, there always could be complications. Perhaps the acidic miasma of the ghouls had gotten inside her system, contaminating her blood and gnawing her vital organs, but he certainly hoped that wasn't the case. "Did you rest as I told you to?" he asked, and the white-haired girl gave him a nod.

"I'm okay... You don't have to worry about me, Yukio-kun," Aura said, earning herself a surprised look from the dark-haired, half-demon boy.

"_... Yukio-kun?_" Rin thought, narrowing his eyes at her choice of honorifics, "_What the hell?_"

"Can I check you anyway? Just in case," Yukio asked, concerned as there were chances of the white-haired girl having internal necrosis. Aura wanted to say no, but she knew both twins wouldn't let her leave unless she accepted. In the end, she nodded, and Yukio smiled. "Sit down there," he said while gesturing at a chair in front of a messy desk – which undoubtedly was Rin's. Aura quickly did as she was told, while Yukio opened a drawer of his tidy desk and grabbed a medical kit out of it.

Rin quietly observed as his younger twin brother examined Aura, wondering if he would be able to help her. At first, he thought it was nothing to worry about, but after seeing how concerned Yukio looked, he couldn't help but feel worried as well. Yukio, on his part, was truly worried about the girl's health, especially as she could probably be in severe danger. He knew he couldn't diagnose a disease like necrosis caused by a ghoul's miasma without blood samples, but he still wanted to check her just in case he found a sign of something else.

"Your fever is quite high Shimizu-san. It could be dangerous if you keep forcing yourself like this," Yukio said, although he was not sure what was causing her temperature to go up, "You should go and have plenty of rest. Also, make sure to drink a lot of liquid..." Suddenly, he remembered something, and turned to look at his older brother. "Speaking of which, Nii-san... Did you remember my mineral water?" he asked, and the half-demon boy choked on his popsicle.

"Ah... Sorry, I forgot..." Rin awkwardly apologized, "C'mon... Water is easily forgettable... since it's transparent and all." He didn't overlook his younger twin seemed annoyed, so he pulled his half eaten popsicle out of his mouth and offered it to him. "Wanna eat my gorigori-kun instead?"

An annoyed frown took over Yukio's face. "I don't want it. I'll go buy the mineral water myself later."

A sigh escaped her lips, and she then pulled a transparent bottle out of the grocery bag she was holding. "Here," Aura said, offering Yukio a mineral water. He was about to politely decline it, but she cut him off before he could do so, "Take it. I bought three bottles, so it's okay."

"... Thanks. I'll pay you back later," Yukio said, grabbing the bottle and glaring at his brother out of the corner of his eye.

The atmosphere in the room had suddenly became quite heavy, and Aura couldn't help but feel uneasy while the two brothers exchanged glares. She could tell an argument was about to start, so before she could get caught in, she stood up from where she was sitting and decided to leave. "W–Well... I'll be going then..."

•

•

After a long rest, Aura woke up feeling healthy again. The light brightening her room was soft and tenuous, and when she turned to look at her window, she saw the sky was painted a hundred shades of orange. It was the evening, and luckily for her, the temperature had dropped greatly and was now pleasant to her.

"_... I'm thirsty._" Still half asleep, she stood up on her feet and made her way to the dorm's kitchen, craving a fresh glass of water to wet her dry mouth. As she walked, a scent in the air caught her attention; the smell of something delicious. "_Meat...?_" Her mouth started to water in response to the aroma, and unconsciously, her steps started to quicken. When she arrived at the kitchen, her suspicions were confirmed; Rin was cooking. She quickly rushed to where he was, when she saw a black cat sitting on the table in front of him.

"Ah, Aura!" Rin grinned cheerfully, waving a hand at her, "Are you feeling better now?"

Aura didn't reply; her full attention was on the cat, which was now eyeing her with curiosity. "_Rin, who's that?_" it asked, its voice echoing inside her head.

"She's Aura. She lives here with Yukio and me," Rin replied, still with a grin across his face, "She's got one hell of a strange name, doesn't she?"

"_Aura..._" Slowly, the cat approached her, studying her from head to toe with his big, bright green eyes. "_My name is Kuro. Nice to meet—_"

Even before Kuro could finish introducing himself, he got cut off by Aura, who, unable to resist her urges, started to pet him. Leapers, baryons, goblins, ghouls; she had seen a lot of different demons thoughout her life, but it was her very first time seeing a nekomata – and honestly, she didn't think they could so cute. "C–Cute... So soft, too...!"

"_D... Don't look down on me!_" Kuro yelled, annoyed at the fact he was being treated as a kid, "_I'm way older than you, you know!_"

Aura blinked. "Really?" she asked, truly curious about it, "How old are you?"

"_I'm one hundred and one years old!_" Kuro replied, and the white-haired girl looked at him with awe.

"Is Kuro going to stay here, Rin?" Aura asked, as she turned to look at the half-demon boy.

"Yeah," Rin replied, not taking his eyes off of his cooking, "He's my familiar from now on!"

"Your... familiar?" Suddenly, an image of the demons that used to live with her flashed through her mind, and inevitably, her features saddened a bit. She had been alone her whole life as her family wasn't exactly fond of her, and even though they fed her and gave her a place to sleep, they never made her feel loved. The only ones that spent time with her during her lonely childhood were those demons that made their way into her home; those beings her family considered as bothersome, disgusting creatures.

"_Rin, what are you cooking?_" Kuro asked, his mouth watering at the scent filling the whole kitchen, "_It smells delicious!_"

"Donburi!" Rin replied, sounding quite excited about it, "There's a lot of beef, plus I had Yukio buy me a top notch mirin! It was pretty expensive, but I'm sure it'll taste awesome!" As he carefully cooked the meal, an idea crossed his mind; it was the perfect chance for him to get closer to the white-haired, half-demon girl. "Oi, Aura," he spoke without looking away from his cooking, making the white-haired girl snap out of her trance, "Wanna join us for dinner?" Knowing the kind of person she was, he knew she'd decline, so he added, "C'mon, join us! There's a lot of meat today!"

"_M... Meat?_" Immediately, a bright, shiny sparkle appeared on Aura's grayish blue eyes. The boy's cooking was absolutely fantastic, plus meat was something she loved to eat; there was no way she'd decline an invitation coming from him. She'd feel guilty if she didn't do anything to contribute on the dinner, though, hence her response was, "Only if you let me help you to cook."

Rin blinked. "You know how to cook?" he asked, earning himself an angry glare.

"Of course I know, moron," Aura replied in annoyance, "Don't look down on me just because you're a pro on this!"

Rin chuckled between his teeth. "_A pro, she says..._" he thought to himself, her words making him feel strangely happy. "Alright then, the beef's already cooking, so help me flavor it with soy sauce," Rin said, and the white-haired girl stared at him with perplexity, almost as if he were speaking an unknown language for her, "I don't want to use too much mirin since it was expensive, so I'll replace it with sugar and—"

"Can I just make a side dish?" Aura cut him off, feeling incredibly dumb as she barely understood anything of what he had said. She knew the half-demon boy didn't need her help – because honestly, her help would practically ruin his cuisine – but still, she wanted to help him anyway.

"A side dish?" Rin asked, quite curious about what she would prepare, "What?"

Aura's cooking repertoire wasn't exactly vast and rich, hence her reply was simply, "Onigiri."

A frown formed on Rin's features. "Seriously...?"

"What do you mean 'seriously'?" Aura glared at him, furrowing her eyebrows at him, "I'm really good at making onigiris! You just watch!"

•

•

Half an hour later, the dark-haired, half-demon boy had finished cooking the meal, and was already serving it. "Yukio told us to start eating first, so let's dig in!" he said with enthusiasm, as Kuro cheered happily and began to eat. The only one that wasn't sitting in the table was the white-haired girl, who refused to come out of the kitchen until she finished cooking herself.

"C'mon!" Rin yelled from the table, "It won't taste as good if it gets cold!" He got no answer from her, so with a tired sigh, he stood up from his chair and made his way to the kitchen, and when he stepped inside it, he saw that Aura was still preparing the onigiris – or rather, she was fighting with the rice and trying to give it a proper triangle shape. "Is that supposed to be an onigiri?" Rin grinned amusedly at the funny, weird shape she had given it.

Aura glared at him, an angry pout on her lips. "T... The shape doesn't matter as long as it tastes good, right?"

Rin chuckled. "I guess," he said, as he stood next to her and observed her as she cooked with her full concentration on it.

It was only a matter of time until he joined her and started to prepare onigiris along with her, and even though it annoyed her that he ended up helping her in the end, she couldn't say she wasn't happy; after all, she enjoyed to be around him, and his presence soothed her for some strange reason.

"Hey," Rin suddenly interrupted the silence, causing the white-haired girl to look up at him, "You said... you took your confession back, right?" Aura gave him an affirmative nod, and an instant later, the half-demon boy jerked his head to look at her, his sapphire blue eyes looking deep and compelling. "Don't take it back."

* * *

**A/N: ... /dead tired right now.**

**Thank you for everything guys, I love you all /hugs.**


	16. his STAR

**Ao no Exorcist (**青の祓魔師** / **エクソシスト**) © Kazue Katō**

* * *

It was almost midnight, and the full moon was up in the dark, starry sky. At that moment, the white-haired girl was lying on her bed, her eyes open and glued on the neglected ceiling of her room. She was tired and wanted to rest, but she couldn't close her eyes and fall asleep. Her mind was troubled and full of thoughts; thoughts about what had happened a few hours ago.

_"... Don't take it back," Rin said, his voice sounding demanding, almost as though he were afraid her feelings towards him had changed. They stared at each other, sapphire blue eyes to grayish blue ones – that is, until the half-demon boy blushed and awkwardly stepped back, scratching the back of his head while glancing away. "If you take it back, it'll feel like it was just a joke," he said, his voice sounding rather embarrassed. "It made me happy to hear someone liked me like that... So please, don't take it back."_

_Aura simply stared at him, her grayish blue eyes wide. "Okay," she nodded at him, even though she wasn't really sure at what she was agreeing to. She was confused, but at the same time, happiness overwhelmed her now that the deep injury on her heart was completely gone. She was blissful; she thought her feelings were bothersome to him, so hearing him saying otherwise made her feel at ease. Along with felicity, though, she also felt puzzlement, and she now was wondering what Rin was thinking, and what kind of feelings he was holding inside._

_Rin's lips curved into a calm smile, pretty different to those lively, cheerful grins he usually wore across his face. "Thanks," he said, truly thankful towards her. A silence followed, until the dark-haired boy let out a chuckle, which earned him a curious look from the white-haired girl. "You know... Yours was the first confession I've ever received," he grinned, and the white-haired girl's eyes widened in complete shock. _

_Rin wasn't lying; he hadn't been exactly popular during his middle school years – or rather, he had never been popular. Back when he was a little kid, everyone used to be scared of him because of his unnatural strength, and at some point, he got used to people fearing him. During middle school, he used to regularly skip school, and because of his lack of presence, he never had the chance to build relationships with the rest of his fellow classmates. Moreover, he was constantly getting into fights, something he struggled to change about himself, but didn't seem to figure out how. To someone like him, who had been a target for fear during most of his childhood and had recently started to befriend other people, receiving a love confession was a joy he couldn't really express in words.  
_

_"It made me... really happy," Rin said, as he balled up his fists, annoyed at himself for having rejected her so mindlessly._

_A light smile formed on Aura's pinkish lips. "It was the first time I confessed to someone, so... it's kinda special to me, too..." she said, as a slight blush colored her pale cheeks, "To be honest, you were the first person I fell in love with." After hearing such words, Rin's electric blue eyes shot open. He couldn't believe it, and in a way, he felt honored. "But... I'm not sure if I like you that way now," she admitted, and the boy's face suddenly lost cheerfulness, "You're really important to me, but... I don't know. I think we should be friends."_

_A frown took over Rin's face, especially because of that last sentence of hers. "What makes you so sure of it?"_

_"I don't know... Maybe that you rejected me without thinking much about it?" Aura replied his question with one of her own, giving him a dubious look, "I'm sure that at that moment, you were thinking about someone else." Rin suddenly jumped in shock, his reaction confirming her suspicions. "You... were thinking about Moriyama-san, weren't you?" she asked, but received no answer from the boy, whose eyes fell down to the floor. "I think you're more suited to her... I mean, you liked her even though she never did anything to win you over, right?"_

_"... Shiemi's got nothing to do with this," Rin finally spoke, and the white-haired girl raised an eyebrow at him. "I like y—"  
_

_"Moriyama-san does have to do with it," Aura cut him off, her voice suddenly gaining strength, "You're just confused, Rin." He simply stared at her; it was true he was confused, but the more he talked to her, the more clear his feelings became. "You might think it's something else, but you're just happy because you got a confession from someone. If I hadn't confessed... you wouldn't feel like this."_

_"... Fine, I got it," he said under his breath, a scowl still on his features, "But you're wrong."_

_Aura frowned at him. "How am I wrong?"_

_Rin didn't reply right away; it took him a while to gather enough courage to speak. When he found the right words to express himself, he lifted up his sapphire gaze from the floor and looked straight into her eyes, his feelings immediately reaching her. "Even if you hadn't confessed, I'd definitely... still like you."_

It had been a few hours already, but she still was flustered about it, and her heart started to race whenever the memory of him confessing to her popped up on her mind. Luckily for her, Yukio showed up an instant later, so she didn't have to give Rin a reply – which was convenient, considering she had absolutely no idea what to do. The whole dinner had been extremely awkward, but she had eventually gotten used to it; after all, Yukio and Kuro were there as well, and thanks to their presences, she hadn't felt that uncomfortable.

"_What's with him all of a sudden...?_" Aura thought, as she rolled on her bed, "_Rin is... so weird._" She then closed her eyes, but even though she was trying to sleep, thoughts kept popping up on her head. "_Rin said he liked me, but... what did he mean?_" Honestly, she didn't know. What kind of like was it? Like as in friends? Or like as in love? To her, the half-demon boy was truly an enigma; she had problems reading him, plus his words always confused her. Then again, it wasn't a surprise she didn't understand him; after all, at that moment, she didn't even understand her own feelings.

- – — – -

It was about seven in the morning, and after a whole sleepless night, she stood up from her bed, ready to head to classes. As she dressed up on her uniform, she had a glimpse of herself in a mirror that was nearby, and a frown took over her face at what she was seeing. She had dark bags under her eyes, plus her hair was a complete mess. A tired sigh escaped her lips. She couldn't believe it; the way Rin could get her so worked up over himself. "_This is all his fault..._" she thought, as she grabbed a brush from her desk and ran it through her tangled white locks.

Without any warnings, a bunch of glitter and confetti suddenly started to rain down above her, causing her to froze in shock and drop the brush she was holding. An instant later, she saw an envelope slowly falling in front of her, and she caught it before it could land on the floor. Aura frowned at the mysterious envelope; it was white with pink dots, plus it was full of adorable, glitterish stickers. She opened the envelope and found piece of paper inside, which she pulled out and began to read to herself.

**Dear Shimizu Aura-chan:**

**The weather's been quite hot lately, hasn't it? I, myself, enjoy summer. It's a lovely season for festivals, don't you think~?  
Well, it might sound pretty sudden, but there's something really important I need to discuss with you!  
Come to my office right away. I'll be waiting for you~!**

**~ Mephisto** **  
**

"... _Something important, huh?_" Aura thought, unable to take the demon seriously. On her eyes, Mephisto really was an eccentric person; he seemed to be quite gracious and comical, but at times, he could be quite serious and frightening, almost as if he were hiding his true nature. While wondering what the demon wanted to discuss with her, she suddenly remembered there was something she wanted to ask him; something that had been bothering her for days. She dressed as quickly as she could, and when she finished, she quickly rushed outside her room.

- – — – -

Mephisto smirked contentedly at the screen of his gaming device, enjoying the "**YOU WIN**" message written in big, red letters. Along with watching anime and reading manga, playing video games was one of his favorite pastimes, and since he was pretty wealthy, he undoubtedly had tons – if not countless – games and consoles. Video games weren't the only games he liked to play, though. He considered the world to be his playground, humans and demons being merely pawns he could make use of. He knew that game of his was quite a hard one to win, but to him, losing wasn't an option.

His trail of thought was suddenly interrupted when a certain girl pushed the door open, making her way inside the room while panting heavily. "My, what kind of way is that to enter the principal's office?" Mephisto asked, eyeing the white-haired girl with amused, forest green eyes. "You look exhausted," he commented, "Have you been running?"

"I'm on a rush, Mephisto-san," Aura said between pants, "The class rep on my class gave up his position... and they're making a reelection today!" To her, proper attendance was pretty important; after all, she wanted the role of class representative, so without doubts, arriving at class in time was totally a must. "So, what did you want to talk about? I can't be late, so let's do it quick!"

"I'll make it quick, then," Mephisto said, before singing, "Eins, zwei, drei~!" He then snapped his fingers, causing a pinkish cloud of smoke to fill the room. There was a loud, metallic sound, and when the smoke faded away, her grayish blue eyes widened in shock at the dangerous weapon lying in the floor. It was a scythe; it was quite big in size, plus its sharp blade looked deadly. "According to the reports the teachers did during the exwire exam, you're pretty physical when it comes to fighting demons, and thus an excellent candidate for knight," Mephisto explained, while the girl stared at the scythe in awe, "All you needed was a weapon, so I thought it'd be appropriate to get you one considering you'll be going on a mission today~"

Aura blinked. "What?" she asked, bewildered at the sudden news, "A mission...?"

"Come now, you're already an exwire. Of course you'll be going on missions," Mephisto said, snickering amusedly, "Seeing as you're not experienced enough to go alone, you'll go with one of your fellow classmates. Hmm, let's see..." A silence followed, the white-haired girl's anxiety growing with each single second. "Oh yes! What about Okumura Rin-kun?" Mephisto said, causing her to jump in shock, "I'm aware you're the only one of his classmates that knows about his powers, so he won't have any problems to fight around you. It's perfect, isn't it~?"

"_... It's not perfect at all,_" Aura thought, feeling desperate. She didn't want to face him; not when she still didn't have an answer to give him.

"The mission is pretty simple," Mephisto started, his voice interrupting the girl's trail of thought, "Wait for me outside the door at six pm, alright~?"

"... Okay." Aura turned around to leave the office, but after walking a few steps, she stopped. "By the way, Mephisto-san..." she started, as she jerked her head to look at the purple-haired demon, "Why did you say that I'm dangerous for Rin?" She then turned around to face him, her grayish blue eyes full of sincerity and determination. "I'd never hurt Rin," she stated, her words solid and strong, "Rin is... the most important person to me. There's no way I'd do anything to harm him."

Mephisto smirked mischievously, the girl's pure, loyal feelings catching his interest. "I wonder if that's true..." he said, his voice sounding malicious. "Do you know what kind of demon your mother was?" he asked, and her grayish blue eyes shot open in shock at his question, "Or rather... do you even know what kind of demon _you_ are?" She was in shock; truthfully, she had no idea what kind of demon she was, and honestly, she was too afraid to know. "Don't jump into conclusions so fastly when there's a lot you still ignore about yourself... such as your true nature."

"_True nature...?_" Chills ran down her spine as she unconsciously stepped back, suddenly feeling the urge to run away from there. "I'll be going then..." Aura said, as she made a small bow and quickly headed outside the room, innerly wondering if hiw words were true. Demons weren't known as honest creatures, but for some reason, she had the feeling the purple haired demon wasn't lying to her. She had the hunch there was something truly bad inside her; something rotten and evil.

"Dear me..." Mephisto said to himself, as his attention went back to his gaming device. "It's going to be this way again, huh...?"

- – — – -

"_Damn it, Yukio..._" Rin thought in annoyance, as he made his way to the academy's locker room. "_Why did you have to show up and ruin everything?_" Needless to say, he was quite upset; if only his younger brother hadn't had such a bad timing, he would have gotten a reply from the white-haired girl, and their relationship would probably be different by now. "_I want to see her..._"

A sigh escaped his lips as he opened his locker, and his electric blue eyes widened in surprise at seeing it wasn't empty. There was a piece of paper folded in half, which he assumed to be a letter. He immediately grabbed it, and without waiting a single second, he opened it and read its content.

**Rin:**

**We have a mission today.**  
**Meet me outside the dorm at 6 pm.****  
**

**~ Aura**

He didn't know how he was supposed to feel after reading that emotionless letter of hers. Should he feel glad because he now had the chance to spend time alone with her? Or should he feel upset because she was acting as though nothing had happened? Honestly, he wasn't sure – but if there was something he was sure of, it was that he was a bit afraid to face her. He had no idea what she would have said if Yukio hadn't showed up and interrupted the moment, after all.

- – — – -

As soon as the regular classes finished, Aura walked outside the classroom, her eyes downcast in dissapointment. In the end, that day, she had couldn't make it to classes; in fact, she arrived nearly fifteen minutes late. It wasn't a surprise she had been late; she had to go back to the dorm to leave her scythe in her room – since there was no way she could go carrying such a deadly weapon in front of normal students – plus she had to write a letter for Rin and leave it on his locker as she didn't have the guts to face him yet.

"_Damn it..._" she thought, "_I... really wanted to be the new class rep..._" While thinking about this, she slowly made her way to the cafeteria, and much to her surprise and fortune, she managed to buy herself a cheap lunch and get a table despite the fact it was as crowded as always. Izumo and Paku, who right at that moment were wandering aimlessly in the cafeteria, happened to spot her at the distance, and decided to sit with her as she was alone in the table. It was a matter of time until they started to talk, and inevitably, the conversation of the previous day was resumed.

"Really?" Paku asked, shocked at what she was hearing. "Okumura-kun said that?"

Aura nodded. "I told Rin I wanted to take my confession back, but he said he didn't want me to," she explained, "I seriously don't get him at all..."

"See?" Izumo told the short-haired, brunette girl, her voice showing absolutely no signs of either surprise or shock, "It was obvious it'd go well."

"So..." Paku started, and her lips curved into a cheerful smile, "Are you two going out?"

At that instant, Aura choked on the apple juice she was drinking. "W–What?" Her pale face was now colored a deep, fire red, probably because to her, the idea of going out with someone sounded weird and embarrassing. She had never dated anyone, hence her lack of knowledge on the subject, but she knew things like hugging, kissing and cuddling came along with it. "R... Rin and I?" Honestly, she couldn't picture herself doing such things with the half-demon boy, and just thinking about it was enough to make her flush. "N... No way..."

- – — – -

That day, when Aura stepped inside classroom one thousand one hundred and six, the exwires jumped in startle and stared at her in complete shock. "What?" she asked in confusion, frowning at the surprised reaction her classmates were giving her. "_Is there something in my face...?_" she thought, as she awkwardly made her way towards her seat next to the pig-tailed, purple-haired girl. She was oblivious to it, but the reason as to why she was being stared at was nothing else than the scythe she was carrying on her back. The deadly weapon was huge, plus it seemed pretty heavy.

"I didn't know you were aiming for knight, Shimizu-san," Konekomaru commented, breaking the silence in the room.

"Ah... I decided it today," Aura said, as she placed her new weapon on the empty desk behind her. She then sat next to Izumo, who was eyeing the weapon with both shock and curiosity. "Mephisto-san got this weapon for me..." At that precise moment, a doubt entered her mind. "_Come to think of it... Where did he get it?_" she innerly wondered, "_And why a scythe, of all weapons?_" She really was curious; after all, she didn't even know why the demon had given her a weapon in the first place. She didn't give it much thought, though; he probably had his reasons.

Rin was agape, his electric blue eyes almost sparkling. "So cool!" he said in awe, his words causing the white-haired girl to jump in startle. "You almost look like a shinigami!"

"_A... shinigami?_" Aura thought, wearing a frown across her face, "_Is that supposed to be a compliment...?_" None of the exwires said anything, but they shared the half-demon boy's opinion. She was carrying a scythe, the classic weapon gods of death used to eliminate souls in fiction, plus her appearance was pretty ghostly considering her hair was snow white and her skin extremely pale. Truthfully, she looked like a grim reaper, or at least some sort of evil spirit.

The door suddenly opened, and the anti-demon pharmacology teacher stepped inside the room. "Alright everyone," he said, his voice catching the attention of all the exwires, "Take your seats, class is about to begin." His turquoise eyes scanned the whole classroom, and he immediately noticed that there was a deadly weapon lying in the desk behind the two girls sitting in front. "Is that yours, Shimizu-san?" he asked, and Aura immediately nodded. "So you have your eye on knight, huh?"

"Yeah," Aura replied, nodding, "I don't know if I'll be able to learn how to fight with it, but... I'll do my best."

Honestly, Yukio was surprised; he thought the white-haired girl was more suited to be either a doctor or an aria since her grades were quite good, but he decided to remain quiet and respect the girl's decision of choosing knight as her meister. Aura, on her part, had a hard time choosing a meister. Doctor and tamer were meisters she had no interest in, so she discarded them. Aria didn't really appeal her either, but if she happened to choose it as her meister, she would have to be extremely careful not to recite her own fatal verse. Dragoon and knight were the only ones left, and she was fine with either.

"Good luck with it," Yukio said, giving her a gentle smile. "I'm sure you'll be able to accomplish it."

"Th... Thanks, Yu—" Aura said, but stopped when she realised what she was about to say, "... Okumura-sensei."

She didn't really notice it, but Rin gave an annoyed snort. "_What the hell?_" he thought, frowning, "_Since when are they so close?_" It wasn't the first time he noticed it; that Aura usually got flustered around Yukio. Honestly, it annoyed him how his younger brother was always liked and admired by everyone, but it especially annoyed him that he was snatching the white-haired girl away from him. Aura had confessed to him; she had said she liked him and none else, so the thought of her falling for Yukio instead pissed Rin off to no end. Yukio, feeling a glare pierced on him, noticed the fact his older brother looked pretty angry, but decided to simply ignore him. He knew his older brother could be quite immature sometimes, after all.

"Well," Yukio started, facing his rather small class, "Shall we start the lesson now?" The response of the students was a silent nod, and the young teacher turned around, grabbed a chalk from the holder and began to write. "Today's class will mostly be spent on revision," he said when he finished writing "**Herbalism**" on the blackboard, "I want you to make a list of the herbs and fungi you know that can be used to treat spirit wounds. You can work in pairs as long as each of you do your own writeup." As soon as the word 'pairs' escaped the teacher's mouth, Rin immediately turned to look at Aura, and an idea crossed his mind. "You have fourty minutes to do it until I collect your papers."

"_Alright..._" Aura thought, grabbing her pen and focusing her attention on the work, "_**Aloe**: It can be used to soothe irritation and restore the original pigment of skin. It works well for spirit wounds caused by a ghoul type demons. **Plantain**: It can be used to heal wounds quicker. It works for any kind of external spirit wound. **Pomegranate**: It can be used to kill parasitic demons, such as chuchi. **Echinacea**: It can—_" she stopped writing when she felt a pair of eyes glued on her, and when she lifted up her gaze from her studies, she saw a certain half-demon standing in front of her. "W... Wha—"

"Do this with me!" Rin said, accidentally sounding demanding, "P... Please."

Aura didn't reply, probably because she hadn't even registered what he had said. "W–Why don't you do it with Moriyama-san?" she said, feeling nervous all of sudden.

Rin frowned. "I want to do it with you," he said, his words making the white-haired girl's face go a tone redder.

"... Izumo-chan?" Aura said nervously, turning to look at the pig-tailed, purple-haired girl sitting next to her.

"No way," Izumo immediately declined, "I'm doing this alone."

"B–But..." Slowly, Aura turned to look at Rin, and carefully studied him. His posture was pretty tense, and his sapphire blue eyes were expecting a response of agreement. Honestly, she enjoyed being around him and wanted to work with him, but there was one problem; she still didn't have a response for his confession, and she was sure he would ask her about it.

Rin, tired of waiting for her to react, took her silence as a "yes" and dragged her towards an empty desk at the end of the classroom, next to the one in where Yamada was sitting. They sat together, and the lack of conversation caused a silence to build between them. "_Wh... __What now...?_" he thought, feeling nervous all of sudden. What was her response? How did she feel about him? Would she go out with him? There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask her, but he had no idea how to start.

"_I... can't think of anything..._" Aura thought, chewing on her pencil out of nervousness. Her mind was completely blank, almost as though everything she had learned on cram school had been erased from her memories – and she knew the cause of her sudden loss of memory was the boy next to her. Because of him, she couldn't concentrate in the slightest, nor could she think of anything else than the fact he was just a few centimetres away from her. "_A textbook,_" she thought, standing up from her desk, "_I need a textbook._"

"Huh?" Rin snapped out of his trance as soon as he noticed the white-haired girl was no longer sitting next to him. "Aura?"

"Okumura-sensei," Aura said, and the alluded teacher turned to look at her. "Can I go to the library for a bit?" she asked, "I need to borrow a textbook..."

"Me too!" Rin exclaimed, as he stood up from his desk and rushed towards where the white-haired girl was. Yukio didn't say anything; he simply stared at his older brother with dubious eyes, suspecting he was planning to use the library as an excuse to skip classes. "What?" Rin said, scowling at the way his younger brother was looking at him, "I... need a book, too."

- – — – -

Just as everything else in the prestigious True Cross Academy, the library was luxurious and incredibly huge. There were thousands of books of all kinds, so finding a single book about herbalism was quite a difficult task – although that didn't mean Aura would give up. It had been nearly half an hour since she had started her arduous search, and she wouldn't stop looking amongst the large pile of textbooks until she found what she was looking for. The dark-haired, half-demon boy didn't exactly share her motivation, though.

"Oi, Aura..." Rin called tiredly, looking up at her from where he was sitting, "Haven't you found it yet?"

"No," Aura replied, and then turned to look at him with a frown across her face. "Why are you here anyway?" she asked, "It's not like you need a book or anything."

"Well..." Rin paused, awkwardly scratching his cheek as he tried to think an excuse, "We're... working together, so I thought I should come, too."

Aura raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't make any sense," she said, her grayish blue eyes downcast on a book she was flipping through, "Besides, why didn't you go with Moriyama-san? She's way better at this than me." It was true; the blonde girl who always wore kimonos worked as a shopkeeper at the academy's exorcist shop, so her knowledge about herbalism was obviously rich and wide. "You should go and work with her... You'll pass for sure."

At that point, Rin couldn't stand it anymore. He stood up from where he was sitting, facing her and looking straight into her eyes. He innerly told himself he had to tell her how he felt; she had confessed to him, so there was no way he couldn't so the same. "I like you," he said, his voice determined and straight forward, "Go out with me."

* * *

**► ****I guess everyone knows this, but a shinigami (**死神******) is basically a "god of death" or "grim reaper."**

**A/N: Update~! Thank you so much for reading... and special thanks to those who take their time and leave me a review! It means a lot to me, really!  
**


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